Millard Grimes: The road that went nowhere

The Road to Everywhere.

That was the headline on a column in Georgia Trend magazine in the March 1995 edition, more than 20 years ago. It was written by Al Niemi, then dean of the University of Georgia business college, and Jeff Humphries, director of the college's economic forecasting department, who were regular columnists for Trend. Humphries still is.

Their column was a response to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article which called the road in question "The Nowhere Road."

It turned out the AJC article was more prophetic because the proposal ran into a dead end about three years later and there has been little mention of it since.

Popularly (or unpopularly) known as the Outer Perimeter, the project was put forth by the Atlanta Regional Council as part of a long-term solution to what was considered a serious traffic congestion problem in the Metro Atlanta area, which had a population of about 2.8 million at the time. Then-Gov. Zell Miller was a supporter, as was his immediate successor, Roy Barnes, but there was also significant opposition, as the AJC headline suggested. When Barnes was defeated for reelection in 2002, the Outer Perimeter debate was blamed for the outcome, along with the new state flag he had promoted. Both went down with Barnes.

But Niemi and Humphries, certainly among the most astute observers of the state's economy, described the Outer Perimeter as "the single most important economic development the Atlanta region faces. Georgia has a clear choice: Build the Outer Perimeter and development will come; fail to meet the region's transportation needs and jobs and dollars will flow to competing metropolitan areas in other states."

Twenty years later, their assessment can be judged on two main points: Is traffic congestion worse, and has development continued as strongly?

"The proposed highway will indeed cause some problems," Niemi and Humphries is concluded, "but clearly the facts and logic are on its side."

Looking back, it is easy to identify the two biggest problems. First was the cost, estimated at about $2 billion to $5 billion, which was a lot of money on those days; and secondly was the organized opposition of homeowners in the suburban areas through which the highway would cross. This opposition, while understandable, also brought out a large vote against Barnes in 2002, by voters who were trending strongly Republican and sensed an opportunity to make Sonny Perdue the first Republican governor since 1868.

There was also opposition from environmental groups who feared the impact on wetlands, watersheds and other environmentally sensitive areas.

The basic idea of the Outer Perimeter was to build four-lane highways between Georgia 316 near Dacula west to I-75 in Bartow County, then from there to the west and south around Metro Atlanta all the way to Butts County; then back to the north to link up with the first phase at 316. There were other alternative routes, but that was the most ambitious plan, and it would have taken the outer perimeter through Bartow, Paulding, Carroll, Coweta, Spaulding, Butts, Newton, Rockdale and Walton counties.

Pretty ambitious, but the idea was to take a heavy load of traffic off the interstates going through metro Atlanta, including its business and hotel area and off of I-285, which was and is the inner perimeter.

As a side benefit, the highway would facilitate traffic from Cherokee, Forsyth and other fast-growing northern counties into the metro area.

Portions of the Outer Perimeter roads have been built, of course, but its goal of connecting all sides of Metro Atlanta, while taking through traffic off routes through metro Atlanta, has not been realized.

For various reasons, Georgia's growth slowed in recent years and highway access may not even be a major reason, but it is often blamed. Funds for highways have not been as plentiful as they were in the 1980s, and for a time in the 1990s, not to mention that the cost of highways and property along proposed routes has risen in most cases.

Given the chance to approve expanded highway funds in specific areas, the voters in 2012 rejected a local-option sales tax in eight of the proposed areas, including metro Atlanta. Only the Columbus and Augusta areas voted in favor.

It may be appropriate in 2016 for some courageous legislators to at least look back at the design for the outer perimeter and determine if any parts of the proposal that enjoyed strong support 20 years ago might still be feasible.

Millard Grimes, editor of the Columbus Enquirer from 1961-69 and founder of the Phenix Citizen. is author of "The Last Linotype: The Story of Georgia and Its Newspapers Since World War II." A profile of Grimes can be found in the Georgia Encyclopedia, www.georgiaencyclopedia.org.

This story was originally published October 19, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Millard Grimes: The road that went nowhere ."