Highways

Athens-Clarke County has a well developed highway network, the majority of which has been constructed since the 1950's. The primary network is based on a network of arterial routes carrying traffic from the suburban sections of the county, and surrounding counties, to the central city/UGA area. Most of these arterial routes have been widened to four lanes or are planned to be widened in the coming years. A "beltway" route circles the center of the urban area, including downtown Athens. The Athens Perimeter, completed in the early 1990's, makes Athens one of only two communities in the state of Georgia with a "beltway" route system circling the center of the urban area.

In Athens-Clarke County there are 69 centerline-miles of roads that are maintained by the Georgia Department of Transportation (state route system). The vast majority of roads in Athens-Clarke County (84%) are locally-maintained roads and account for 515 miles. Based on estimates developed by the Athens-Clarke County Transportation and Public Works Department, the replacement cost of these locally maintained roads is approximately $100,000,000.

The following list identifies the existing segments of roadways in the community that currently have volume to capacity ratios between 1.0-1.29 and of 1.3 and above. Roadway segments between 1.0 - 1.29 indicate that traffic conditions during peak hours are likely experiencing congestion problems. Volume to capacity ratios of 1.3 and above indicate that the corridor is likely over capacity and plans should be developed to either increase capacity or reduce demand on the route.

Roadways having 2000 volume to capacity ratios between 1.0 and 1.29 are:

Roadways having 2000 volume to capacity ratios of 1.30 and above:

An evaluation of this data indicates that the most critical capacity problems exist along Atlanta Highway at the Georgia Square Mall and on Macon Highway. Other segments experiencing significant peak hour congestion include Lumpkin Street, Broad Street, College Station Road and Milledge Avenue.

Georgia Department of Transportation and Athens-Clarke County currently have a transportation demand model which projects traffic conditions for the year 2030. This model uses as input the community's planned population and employment growth and the construction of projects in the MACORTS 2030 Transportation Plan. Based on the currently adopted Future Land Use Map and growth projections included in the 2004 update of the 1999 Comprehensive Plan, the following segments are expected to have capacity problems by the year 2030:

These roadways have projected (2030) volume to capacity ratios between 1.0 and 1.29 are:

These roadways have projected (2030) volume to capacity ratios of 1.30 and above:

Assessment of Highways

While there are segments of roadway in Athens-Clarke County that operate at or above capacity during peak hour, most of these capacity problems are addressed by projects in the current 2030 MACORTS Transportation Plan.

It is projected that several capacity problems will exist in the future on major routes inside of the Athens Perimeter. These routes include Milledge Avenue and Lumpkin Street. It will be very difficult to add capacity to these roadways in the future due to the historic character of the properties along this corridor, as well as community opinion that these routes are important in shaping the community's image. Therefore, measures to decrease automobile traffic demand should be further explored such as constructing bicycle facilities and expanding mass transit usage.

A potentially serious problem facing the community is the continued expansion of high- density land uses beyond the traditional . Continued growth of high density land uses could exert additional pressure to widen two lane roadways such as Mitchell Bridge Road, Tallassee Road and Whit Davis Road.

See also Road Projects in the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)

 

Introduction
Mass Transit
Bicycle and Pedestrian System
Aviation System
Commuter Rail and the Multimodal Center

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