Sometimes it feels like our government can’t do big, important things anymore. I’m not talking about things a government ought not do; even as someone who favors limited government, I recognize “limited” doesn’t mean “non-existent.”

Rather, I mean things like building and enhancing public infrastructure. Headline writers can have a field day conjuring new ways to write about Georgia’s water main breaks and similar emergencies, given that the city of Atlanta alone suffers up to 30 such episodes in a month. And of course, Atlanta traffic is infamous nationwide – even if Georgians know all too well the congestion doesn’t end at the city limits. 

Between red tape piled to the sky and NIMBYs hunting down every proposal to build anything, anywhere, you’d be forgiven for thinking we simply can’t build things anymore. 

So, it’s worth noting successes when they happen — and Georgia has a very substantial success to celebrate.

Each year, the American Transportation Research Institute ranks the worst bottlenecks in the nation for freight trucks, a good measure of how bad congestion is in major metro areas. Metro Atlanta has long placed numerous interchanges toward the top of these rankings, including three in this year’s top 10 and another in the top 15. 

But one Georgia bottleneck dropped in the rankings – and even scored the nation’s highest year-over-year increase in peak average speeds. It’s the newly rebuilt interchange of I-285 and Hwy. 400. 

In 2023, that interchange was the ninth worst in the country – practically inevitable for a junction that was built for just 100,000 vehicles per day but tends to handle more than four times that number. In the 2024 rankings, released earlier this year, it fell to only the 29th worst, on the strength of a nearly 12% increase in peak average speed that was tops in the nation.

The improvement is the result of seven years of construction that cost more than $900 million. That certainly was disruptive to the 400,000-plus motorists who traverse that interchange daily. But there’s no way to make such a substantial improvement without some temporary pain.

More projects are on tap in that vicinity, including Peach Pass lanes across the top end of I-285 and northward on Hwy. 400. That could help with two more notorious bottlenecks on the north side: I-285 and I-85, which was the nation’s fourth worst per ATRI, and I-285 and I-75, rated sixth worst. Both I-85 and I-75 have Peach Pass lanes extending northward, but on I-285 those motorists are stuck in the same lanes as everyone else. Adding toll lanes between the two should help keep toll payers separated – with benefits not only for them, but for those in the free lanes as well.

While the construction of those new lanes will also be a pain, the way they’re being financed will lessen the burden on taxpayers. Private investors will foot much of the bill for those improvements, in return receiving toll revenues as payment.

Such arrangements help free up tax dollars for other projects. Georgia’s other two highly ranked bottlenecks are the western and eastern intersections of I-20 with I-285. An upgrade to the eastern one is already under way, and construction on the western one should follow soon.

And while metro Atlanta is the only part of Georgia with bottlenecks in the top 100 (having eight in all), rebuilt interchanges of I-75 and I-65 in Macon, and I-16 and I-95 near Savannah, should make for smoother rides once they’re completed.

But let’s imagine a real test of our ability to build: not just enlarged interchanges of existing interstates, but totally new highways – perhaps allowing trucks, tourists and other motorists crossing Georgia to bypass metro Atlanta altogether.

That’s a higher bar to clear, and bureaucrats and naysayers alike will be harder to placate. But it’s the kind of infrastructure we need to make sure Georgia remains a powerful logistics hub – as well as a great place to live.

 

Kyle Wingfield is president and chief executive officer of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, georgiapolicy.org.