South Fulton Parkway Additional Route Adjustments

When South Fulton Parkway became a state highway, the improvisation of the routes was quite apparent. For one, the whole highway did not actually become a state highway, and for second, existing highways were amended to make this new highway work.

THE S.R. 154 PROBLEM

The main thing that is apparent is that S.R. 154 is in need of major adjustments. When signage is completed for the new route, S.R. 154 will be completely overlapped with other routes entirely along its portion west of U.S. 29 between Palmetto and Atlanta. Routes overlapped in this new arrangement include parts of S.R. 166, S.R. 92, S.R. 70 and S.R. 14 Alt. In addition, another 11 or so miles are directly along U.S. 29, also S.R. 14. In other words, the highway is now useless between where it leaves U.S. 29 in Coweta County and Downtown Atlanta: a distance of about 25 miles along U.S. 29 alone.

Two solutions may be considered for S.R. 154. One of these is very impracticle, but it streamlines the route by cutting the overlapping routes down to one in addition to making the other routes less confusing. This is to simply relocate all of S.R. 154 onto U.S. 29/S.R. 14 between where it joins in Atlanta south to where it parts in Coweta County. The second is the complete removal of the route along and west of U.S. 29 so that the route ends where it meets U.S. 29 in Atlanta. The lone 8-mile section in Coweta County will require a new route number, however. S.R. 387 is the suggested designation, because it was formerly used on Camp Creek Parkway, which is now S.R. 6 and it is now available without using any unused route numbers.

THE S.R. 70 PROBLEM

S.R. 70 went from a pretty direct alignment to a wild zigzag between U.S. 78 in Atlanta and S.R. 34 By-Pass in Newnan. It is understandable that the portion from South Fulton Parkway north to S.R. 154 was decommissioned, and it never was very heavily traveled anyway. While this is the same problem for the portion of former S.R. 70/154 on Cascade-Palmetto Highway, this is much more problematic because it destroys continuity of the route by creating a lengthy, confusing and useless overlap along S.R. 92 and 166.

There HAS to be a more sensible solution to this. One, S.R. 70 could simply have a gap in the route as an "assumed" S.R. 70. Unfortunately, Georgia does not use county route markers so it cannot become a "County Road 70", so perhaps posting liberal "TO SOUTH/NORTH 70" at each end and even along the route is a plausible solution that would prevent the need for a lengthy overlap.

The second is just to restore that stretch of highway, eliminating another state route. Fulton County has a high amount of state route mileage, and there are several excellent candidates for mileage swaps including parts of S.R. 139 (runs within feet of I-20), S.R. 54 north of I-285 and S.R. 280 east of I-285.

WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE PARKWAY?

What really does not make sense is that South Fulton Parkway extends into Douglas County, but state maintenance does not. It is considered a major arterial and state maintenance was supposed to benefit both Douglas and Carroll Counties. Traffic patterns have also placed state highway traffic along the route, so why was this not included?

What should be done here is that a new state route designation should include the remainder of the roadway between Campbellton-Redwine Road (S.R. 70) and S.R. 166. This new route should be designated as S.R. 389, S.R. 70 Spur, or S.R. 166 Connector.