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History |
The compromise of what was planned to be I-85 was S.R. 365. That is the reason it and I-985, which was originally part of S.R. 365, is there today. It is how Georgia made up to Gainesville and Toccoa the lack of the promised I-85. Because of the magnitude and expense of the highway, it had a rather lengthy history on its development. Over time, S.R. 365 grew from a 24 mile long spur of I-85 in 1969 to a major 69 mile highway that is only one project away from completion. In time, S.R. 365 may even become an interstate yet if Georgia and South Carolina were to agree to improve both sides (U.S. 123 in South Carolina) to full interstate standards. This page attempts to detail the progress of the highway from the 1960's to today. LANIER PARKWAY: THE I-85 CONNECTOR The time was the 1950's and debate carried on over who was going to get I-85 and the benefits of it. Athens and Lawrenceville wanted it, and Gainesville and Toccoa were the expected recipients of the route. Then something happened. Ernest Vandiver from Lavonia, a small town south of Toccoa, took office as governor. As soon as he took office in 1959, the proposed route of I-85 was shifted southeast of the planned route to pass through his town. This was very clearly a political move that took the highway away from three major cities and placed it through a small town by means of an influential person. Known as the "Vandiver Curve", this left Gainesville and Toccoa without the promised interstate (1). While I-85 opened in 1965, Gainesville had to wait a couple more years for their freeway. On October 1969 came the compromise, at least to Gainesville. Known as the "I-85 Connector", the new route opened as S.R. 365, giving Gainesville an interstate grade highway that ended northeast of the city. MANY CHANGES RESULTING FROM S.R. 365
While progress for Gainesville was far from rapid with the completion of S.R. 365, the highway made substantial changes to area roads and traffic patterns. The former route of U.S. 23, today simply S.R. 13 and S.R. 369, criss crosses the road several times, and none of these crossings included interchanges when built except at the northern end. Instead, new roads were built at every interchange to accomodate the route. S.R. 20 was relocated, S.R. 347 was extended, a new connector was built in Oakwood (today S.R. 53 and Frontage Road), S.R. 60 was relocated and U.S. 129 was relocated. Even the northern end was located past existing highways with an odd connector that required traffic to drive back to the old route instead of accessing it directly. The latter route was very confusing, and it took until the early 1990's to fix. S.R. 365 also had a banner route for a time that was created with the route, S.R. 365 Business. It followed parts of S.R. 60 and S.R. 13 (present-day 369) and Old Cornelia Highway. The southern end of S.R. 365 Business is precisely where S.R. 53 Connector ends today at I-985. It was no longer shown on the state map in 1979, but may have existed until the creation of I-985 in 1985.
EXTENSION TO CORNELIA Work halted for nearly a decade on further construction of S.R. 365. While the original part was a freeway, the extension would not have access control except in Cornelia. During the 1980's, new roads in Georgia were being constructed as freeways far less often than they had previously. The extension into Cornelia was completed in two phases, creating an interesting scenario where S.R. 365 was briefly overlapped with U.S. 23/S.R. 13 along the now decommissioned old route up to Lula where it then followed part of S.R. 52 back to the completed route.
The first part of the extension to be completed was in 1980, opening up a new four-lane and short freeway from S.R. 52 to the former route between Clarkesville and Demorest. Along with the overlap with S.R. 52, S.R. 13 was also relocated to the new highway as well. The north end of the extension ended at the U.S. 441 by-pass, which had previously been completed in 1971. Part of the U.S. 441 by-pass was upgraded to include an extra carriageway and upgrade to full freeway, resulting in the extended S.R. 365 ending at a half-diamond at U.S. 441 Business north of Cornelia. Work was finalized in 1981 on the Cornelia extension, resulting in U.S. 23 and S.R. 13 both moving to the new highway and the older, winding 23-mile route between Gainesville and Baldwin turned over to Habersham and Hall Counties.
In addition to the previously mentioned highways, other routes were also affected by the extension of S.R. 365 included S.R. 51 and U.S. 123. U.S. 123 was extended along what is now S.R. 15 Connector to end at the new highway. Also, S.R. 51 was also extended along the former U.S. 23 in Lula to end where S.R. 52 joined the old highway. The extension already tied into a previously-existing U.S. 441 by-pass, which was completed in 1971, resulting in the upgrade of the northern end of that by-pass. THE INTERSTATE UPGRADE S.R. 365 was the compromise for I-85, so it was fitting that the full freeway portion of it that connected to I-85 become an interstate itself. While it took over 15 years to accomplish, S.R. 365 became I-985 in 1985 up to its final exit and end of access control. While this meant no significant changes to the highway itself, the designation brought the badly needed and coveted interstate designation, which has helped the area to grow as it is already. When S.R. 365 became I-985, instead of the usual signed overlap, S.R. 365 was relegated to secret status up to the end of the interstate. ON INTO TOCCOA (1989-1991) While S.R. 365 did not bring immediate progress to Gainesville, what it did bring was tourists, and all of them were forking off of I-85 headed directly for U.S. 23/441 into the mountains now that they had a fast new highway to reach it. This brought significant congestion to Clarkesville and Demorest. It was enough that a county road was taken over in joint with part of S.R. 115 (present-day S.R. 17) to create a small by-pass to the southeast for U.S. 441. This route was designated as S.R. 15, and the county portion is today known as Hills Crossing Road.
The need for a better route was not solved immediately. Work on the extension of S.R. 365 in 1989 was only completed to then S.R. 115, and U.S. 23/441 traffic was diverted to part of S.R. 197 temporarily. However, when work was completed in 1991, the changes were enormous. S.R. 17 was relocated along the eastern leg of S.R. 115, the new S.R. 365 and what was previously S.R. 13 Connector. Also, as a result of the completed new highway, U.S. 123 was truncated and relocated to end at the new S.R. 365. Basically, this meant that U.S. 123 would never again serve Cornelia or Mt. Airy. U.S. 23 and 441 were relocated as well, with the old route designated as an extended U.S. 441 Business with a new state route number, S.R. 385. The former route of S.R. 17 was also redesignated as S.R. 17 Alternate.
In all, S.R. 365 was now well-established, and the extension brought the new four-lane to south of Toccoa. The problem was that S.R. 13, the highway that historically took travelers from Atlanta to Toccoa alongside U.S. 23 and 123, was now no longer necessary north of Gainesville. Since the two routes would have ended up sharing mileage the entire length from Gainesville to Toccoa, the decision was made to instead designate the remaining two lane portion into Toccoa as S.R. 365 to cover the last remaining state maintained miles of what had been S.R. 13. This change remains confusing to many cartographers today who still incorrectly label the old route of U.S. 123 as S.R. 13. NEW HOLLAND CONFUSION
Even though S.R. 365 was long completed in Gainesville, one long-standing problem remained. This problem was the lack of completion of a long-proposed new alignment of S.R. 13 and S.R. 365 Business (both today S.R. 369) that would tie into the existing interchange and not require the zig-zag back into Gainesville. This was located in a part of Gainesville that was once a separate munipality known as New Holland.
The result of this incomplete connection was that S.R. 13 traffic was forced to drive northbound on present-day Old Cornelia Highway (Old U.S. 23), turn back southbound on S.R. 13, cross back over S.R. 365 and pass under a narrow railroad tunnel before finally emerging into the city. It was a project delayed for years, and took all the way until 1991 to fix. Perhaps this missing link was part of why S.R. 365 Business was originally established along this route: to bring a single loop to follow on an otherwise confusing route. When the problem was fixed, it coincided with the construction and completion of another project, a new by-pass route of U.S. 129 known as Limestone Parkway. Apparently it took joining it with another project to obtain the funding for the other. NOW AND TOMORROW
S.R. 365 today has become a very established and expensive highway that took decades to build. Such projects would be much more difficult to fund today, and the problem facing the highway today is the need for an interstate upgrade along the rest of the highway to Toccoa. On the original plan, however, very little is left to complete. Overall, however, the only change made on the route since that time is the additional designation of S.R. 419 along the I-985 portion of the route, which occured in 2000. One small part of the S.R. 365 project remains, however, and that is the completion of the Toccoa By-Pass. The project is two phases which includes a new roadway from the current intersection of S.R. 17 and S.R. 17 Alternate east to rejoin S.R. 365 near the South Carolina line. The other part of the project is the upgrade to four lanes of the existing S.R. 17 on the by-pass. All of this will become S.R. 365 upon completion. SOURCES
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