February 23, 1998
Dear Mr. Williams:
Your e-mail of January 28th, 1998 was sent to me for response
after being received in the Department and being routed around a
bit. I will try to answer your question about the State Route
numbers and the US route numbers.
The US Routes are numbered for route consistency and are displayed
predominately so that the motorists can follow these routes across
state lines. In general, but not always, these US routes will
follow the highest and best roadway within a corridor and are thus
subject to change. A couple of examples of this are:
US 19 in north Fulton County - US 19 used to follow State
Route 9 up through Sandy Springs, Roswell and Alpharetta to
Cumming in Forsyth County. In recent years, to facilitate
travel and move out of state travelers to the best route, US
19 was moved to SR 400 on the section north of I-285.
US 29 in Gwinnett and Barrow Counties - US 29 was moved off of
SR 8 to the better route of SR 316 between Lawrenceville and
Athens.
These changes are reflected in national records and maps and are
not done haphazardly or frequently, but they do happen. When they
do, all agencies are notified and all maps printed throughout the
United States will reflect the changes.
However, the Georgia State Route is very stable. Only when a
route is removed totally from the state routes system does the
state route number change. Usually the state route including its
number will simply disappear. The State Route numbering system is
used for accident reporting by the enforcement agencies throughout
the state, as well as by the maintenance departments. A milelog
system is tied to the state route number (rather than the US
Number) so that an event that occurs on the road can be reported
accurately and recorded. Accidents are only one such event. All
of the data bases for accidents, routine maintenance, resurfacing,
construction projects, utility permits, driveway permits, right of
way deeds and many others are tied to the location by County,
State Route number and milelog. Thus the display of the route
number for consistency is extremely important.
The State Route system is a system of highways in Georgia that is
physically owned, maintained and operated by the Georgia
Department of Transportation. This system has about 18,000 miles
of roads in Georgia which is about 17 percent of the 110,000 miles
of public roads. The State Route system carries about 65% of all
of the miles that are driven by travelers in Georgia. This
mileage has remained very consistent over the past 30 years or so.
If a new road is built to be added to the State Route System, the
old road will be taken off of the system, designated for local
traffic and given to the local county or city for control as part
of their system of roads.
In Georgia roads are for the most part financed by fuel taxes.
While Georgia has the lowest fuel tax in the United States, its
roadways are some of the very best. In recent years, Georgia has
won every national award for best maintenance. Local county and
city roads/streets receive funding from the State DOT, from
property taxes, and from local option sales taxes. The State
Highways only receive funding from fuel taxes (both federal and
state).
My special thanks to Mr. Waters for his response. :)
