The much anticipated move to place the South Fulton Parkway into the hands of Georgia Dept. of Transportation (GDOT) came to fruition Wednesday. Being designated a state highway should preserve the parkway’s limited access as it becomes a major traffic corridor in the fast growing area of west metro Atlanta.

The order said the state highway system had been revised to redesignate the parkway as a state road.

“These revisions were necessary to facilitate state route travel, as well as improving the movement of commercial and inter-regional traffic through this area,” said State Transportation Data Administrator Jane Smith. The American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials has approved the U.S. Route revisions associated with the redesignation of South Fulton Parkway, Smith said.

Fulton County Board of Commissioners April 18 signed off on a Local State Road Acceptance proposal from Georgia Dept. of Transportation that would put South Fulton Parkway under state control. Fulton County Commission asked, and GDOT agreed, that South Fulton Parkway be added to the system under the designation of Ga. Highway 14 Alternate/U.S. 29 Alternate and Ga. Highway 70 in Fulton and Douglas counties. The agreement authorizes Fulton County to accept ownership, maintenance responsibility and utility accommodation for portions of Ga. Highway 70 and Ga. Highway 154 once removed from the state system.

The change from county road to state highway was long proposed by residents of unincorporated south Fulton County. But many in the Cliftondale, Cedar Grove and Chattahoochee Hill Country areas began expressing increased concern over the fate of the parkway once a 6.5-mile portion of the road was annexed by Union City last year. Unincorporated residents have routinely expressed the concern that the annexation would play into developers’ hands, resulting in curb cuts and buffer reductions. To date, Union City has made no formal announcement to institute such changes.

South Fulton Parkway is a road of regional significance, beginning at I-285 and extending to the Chattahoochee River at Douglas County near the Carroll County line. It carries an almost certain future as a major traffic corridor and, aside from I-20, is the only major east-west traffic corridor in the rapidly growing west metro Atlanta.

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