Georgia’s 2012 State Freight & Logistics Plan identifies a series of Statewide Freight Corridors, which the State officially adopted in 2013. The selected corridors represent priority roads for freight movement. In addition to key interstates, the identified freight corridors include last mile connector roads to areas of significant freight activity and freight-heavy Governor’s Road Improvement Program (GRIP) roads. GRIP roads are important roads for facilitating economic development in lower population areas (i.e., rural four-lane). The freight corridors provide a statewide web of north-south and east-west connections and represent approximately 15% of the roadways operated by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT). The designated freight corridors highlight how freight is a statewide issue requiring a statewide solution.

The designated Statewide Freight Corridors are also significant because they are exempt from Georgia’s funding balancing law related to how transportation dollars are spent. This helps freight investment stay above the political fold built into other State funding programs, and instead uses a data-driven approach to define where investment will help improve freight mobility most. The ability to direct funding to strategic freight corridors allows for a greater focus on improving key corridors in Georgia that support current and future economic development activities across the state. The recommended projects in the state freight plan further emphasizing the economic generation activity of the corridors by presenting each recommended project in terms of return on investment, including estimated increase in Gross State Product (GSP) and estimated increase in employment.

Takeaways for other agencies:

• It is important to recognize and include non-interstates in a state’s freight network because these roadways or intermodal connectors provide vital connections that may be overlooked for prioritized funding.
• A map of a state’s clearly identified freight corridors can become an important communication tool helping to both promote the importance of the freight corridors within the state and strategically focus investment.

View Georgia’s statewide freight corridors map: https://www.dot.ga.gov/GDOT/pages/freight.aspx