Nationally, road systems have been trending away from state control of roads. This is unfortunate, however, considering that roads maintained by local agencies are very inconsistent and unreliable in quality, maintenance and standardization. This might be okay if all county roads were truly local, but they are not. Around twenty percent of local roads are actually highways. Unfortunately, in many states including Georgia this is the case. However, if steps are taken to assure that at least the local roads of greatest importance are maintained and treated on the same level as their state-owned and maintained counterparts, then it might be possible to have that up to twenty percent of local roads to that level without having the state take responsibility for them all. The concept that is described here is a plan to scale back state highways in the state, but replace them with a system of major county highways, described hereafter as the "County Primary Highway System". The "County Primary Highway System" does not just mean major county roads. It is a concept where maintenance responsibility is shared with some of the maintenance undergone by the state and some traffic engineering for maintenance overseen by the statel, but the ownership and overall responsibility remains local. Combined with much more stringent standards than the current system, the plan here is a highly unusual one that explains how better roads can be achieved with a major turnback at the least cost, the only way such a plan would be effective in lieu of what is currently in place. The idea here of a major decommissioning of state routes is not to be taken only at face value. In other words, turning back a tremendous number of roads very well can and often is disastrous because most counties in Georgia simply do not have the resources to maintain major roadways to the level necessary to ensure proper maintenance. A major decommissioning not only routinely lowers the overall quality of maintenance on roads that generally still serve state highway traffic volumes, but also make statewide travel more difficult, hurts the local economy on affected roads and leads to excessive traffic on other state highways due to the unfamiliarity of non-local drivers with the local system. The proposal here is essentially a very moderate proposal that basically involves the combination of a conservative, local-government approach combined with a more progressive move to centralize elements that are difficult for local governments to address adequately. In other words, it serves as a balance in all categories. This proposal also includes and matches up elements of other proposals presented here in this section of Peach State Roads including the Signed County Highway System, Engineering Aid/Standardization and Intergovernmental Agreements proposals. Below are different topics explaining the different elements of the County Primary Highway System:
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