Could Atlanta be in the running for second Amazon headquarters? (Columbus: towns, limit)

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Yes, this is too much. It would've destroyed Atlanta.

This is all Metro Atlanta needs...

*1. An Outer Perimeter that is further out than originally planned. It would "ring around" the exurbs. It would also serve as a connector/pathway for secondary areas of Georgia.

No. Very expensive with ridge and valleys, ruin pristine forest areas.

*2. An extension of 1-675 northward for:
A. A Spur to I-20
B. A Spur to Lakewood Freeway

No, would destroy even more of South Atlanta and cut thru the proposed South River Park

3. An Atlanta-to-Rome-to-Huntsville-to Memphis interstate. It would come through Metro Atlanta from the northwest through Paulding County, southwest Cobb County, and far eastern Douglas County--it would follow 278/Thornton Road and connect with an extended Lakewood Freeway* in the Sandtown/Wolf Creek area*. We would then have a new interstate highway that starts in Stockbridge and goes all the way to Memphis (see #2 above)

I-22 has been completed from Birmingham to Memphis, so your idea would be redundant.

4. Make 316 a limited access highway all the way to Athen just like GA 400. Rename it "GA 300."

I agree 316 needs to be limited access to Athens.

*5. South Fulton Parkway becomes a limited access highway just like GA 400, stretching from the Airport/Hwy 14 all the way to Carrollton. Rename it "GA 100."

South Fulton Pkwy does not have traffic issues, it works well as a 4 lane divided arterial highway.

*6. A limited access highway just like GA 400, stretching from near where 41/Upper Riverdale Road meet I-75 all the way to Griffin. Call it "GA 200."

Tara Blvd is already nearly a super arterial highway.

*7. The "Fayette Connector": An interstate spur that starts at Hwy 54 near Piedmont Fayette Hospital and then connects with I-85 near Flat Shoals Road or Red Oak Road.

Never been to Fayette Co.

8. Extend and connect the Ronald Reagan Parkway directly with I-85.

Very much needed, but must be built with dedicated BRT lanes and stations/TODs.

What is you obsession with freeways?

*These would be built with strict land preservation/greenspace preservation protocols. The highways would get built to be as minimally intrusive as possible. Similar to many limited access highways/parkways in affluent parts of the Northeast U.S...and GA 400 through a lot of Buckhead.

We both know the real estate, builder, developer lobby would throw millions against that idea and win.

[Leopoldbloom]

Does this make Atlanta look bush league and Boston look sophisticated?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bos...yluxM/amp.html

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by Leopoldbloom

Does this make Atlanta look bush league and Boston look sophisticated?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bos...yluxM/amp.html

No.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by cqholt

No. Very expensive with ridge and valleys, ruin pristine forest areas.

No, would destroy even more of South Atlanta and cut thru the proposed South River Park


I-22 has been completed from Birmingham to Memphis, so your idea would be redundant.

I agree 316 needs to be limited access to Athens.

South Fulton Pkwy does not have traffic issues, it works well as a 4 lane divided arterial highway.

Tara Blvd is already nearly a super arterial highway.

Never been to Fayette Co.

Very much needed, but must be built with dedicated BRT lanes and stations/TODs.

What is you obsession with freeways?

We both know the real estate, builder, developer lobby would throw millions against that idea and win.

OK, it is time for Brother CQ to get schooled...


1. No, it would not be too expensive. It is a necessary highway that could be done without destroying the environment. You need to expand your worldview.

2. The spurs can be built without destroying the proposed South River Park. If you travel around the US and the World you will see there are plenty examples of a limited access highway going hand-in-hand with greenspace/natural conservation/pristine park, etc. It is just that GA's developer lobby has so much power...so you don't really see it around here. It can be done--easily. And it will work well.

3. It would not be redundant. The interstate is about connecting Atlanta directly to Huntsville (via Rome) and Huntsville to Memphis. Again, expand your worldview. Look at highway layouts in traditionally more populated states. The South is not the rural, under-populated backwater it once was.

4. Yes--316 should be renamed GA 300 and become limited access.

5. The new GA 100 would be about keeping the southside free-flowing for future growth and bringing easy access to the exurb of Carrollton. Metro Atlanta should concentrate on expanding development next to already developed nodes and town centers--while preserving greenspace. Easy access from Carrollton to a job center like the Airport would be smart--and it would keep the southside from becoming traffic-clogged like the north side. This is one of the southside's attributes that we must preserve.

6. See #5 above, except replace Carrollton with Griffin.

7. You should go. Fayette County is pristine, tony, and beautiful.

8. Yes, Ronald Reagan Parkway extended. Would give better access from the exquisite Brookwood, Parkview, and Grayson clusters to the job centers along I-85 and the North Perimeter.

9. If you think I am obsessed with freeways, you need to improve your critical reading skills.

10. Huh? Yes, that's it. A pessimistic worldview is a great way to improve a metropolis (it is an easy way to feign intelligence, though...come on now, you're better than this!)

[bu2]

Originally Posted by cqholt

If this would have been built:

We would not have a wonderful city we know and love now.

It would be different. Although I imagine the main difference maker would be the northern part of 675.

The Lakewood Fwy and 675 extension to I-20 as Aries suggests would improve things.

That NW Fwy has ROW outside 285 and it would go through industrial areas in most of NW Atlanta. Not sure where it could fit in once it got close though.

The Stone Mtn. Freeway had several routes. One would have destroyed some very nice parks, but wouldn't have hurt neighborhoods. Another route that I've seen on an old map, north of Medlock and Emory, wouldn't have harmed much. It might well have limited the decline of outer DeKalb County neighborhoods like Tucker and Stone Mountain, or at least made it easier to recover.

I don't see how splitting 85 and 75 would have much negative impact if you used Ft. McPherson and the Lakewood Fwy to get to 285.

675 north of 20 would have had a significant negative impact on several older neighborhoods like Inman Park and Virginia Highlands. But its possible that it may have helped other ITP areas.

DeKalb County was developed with 675 and a completed Stone Mt. Freeway in mind (and an additional rail line to Northlake as well). As mentioned in the thread on rebuilding Cross Keys HS, that those weren't completed has contributed to one of the most congested areas in the country. From the standpoint of DeKalb County, stopping those was like closing the barn door after the horse had already left.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by aries4118

OK, it is time for Brother CQ to get schooled...

1. No, it would not be too expensive. It is a necessary highway that could be done without destroying the environment. You need to expand your worldview.

Do you know why Nashville only has half an "outer perimeter"? The cost of building thru the Highland Rim. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inters...#Northern_loop

2. The spurs can be built without destroying the proposed South River Park. If you travel around the US and the World you will see there are plenty examples of a limited access highway going hand-in-hand with greenspace/natural conservation/pristine park, etc. It is just that GA's developer lobby has so much power...so you don't really see it around here. It can be done--easily. And it will work well.

So you do not care about the communities in the path?

3. It would not be redundant. The interstate is about connecting Atlanta directly to Huntsville (via Rome) and Huntsville to Memphis. Again, expand your worldview. Look at highway layouts in traditionally more populated states. The South is not the rural, under-populated backwater it once was.

I lived in Florence, AL this Atlanta-to-Memphis freeway has been around for decades, but since the opening of I-22 is redundant and unneeded. Getting from Rome to Huntsville, via Lookout and Sand Mtn will not be easy or cheap.

6. See #5 above, except replace Carrollton with Griffin.

We can connect historic railroad towns to Atlanta and improve their livability by connecting them via the existing railroads.

7. You should go. Fayette County is pristine, tony, and beautiful.

I'm good.

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Yes, this is too much. It would've destroyed Atlanta.

This is all Metro Atlanta needs...

*1. An Outer Perimeter that is further out than originally planned. It would "ring around" the exurbs. It would also serve as a connector/pathway for secondary areas of Georgia.

*2. An extension of 1-675 northward for:
A. A Spur to I-20
B. A Spur to Lakewood Freeway

3. An Atlanta-to-Rome-to-Huntsville-to Memphis interstate. It would come through Metro Atlanta from the northwest through Paulding County, southwest Cobb County, and far eastern Douglas County--it would follow 278/Thornton Road and connect with an extended Lakewood Freeway* in the Sandtown/Wolf Creek area*. We would then have a new interstate highway that starts in Stockbridge and goes all the way to Memphis (see #2 above)

4. Make 316 a limited access highway all the way to Athen just like GA 400. Rename it "GA 300."

*5. South Fulton Parkway becomes a limited access highway just like GA 400, stretching from the Airport/Hwy 14 all the way to Carrollton. Rename it "GA 100."

*6. A limited access highway just like GA 400, stretching from near where 41/Upper Riverdale Road meet I-75 all the way to Griffin. Call it "GA 200."

*7. The "Fayette Connector": An interstate spur that starts at Hwy 54 near Piedmont Fayette Hospital and then connects with I-85 near Flat Shoals Road or Red Oak Road.

8. Extend and connect the Ronald Reagan Parkway directly with I-85.



*These would be built with strict land preservation/greenspace preservation protocols. The highways would get built to be as minimally intrusive as possible. Similar to many limited access highways/parkways in affluent parts of the Northeast U.S...and GA 400 through a lot of Buckhead.

Yes, this. Don't need all that extra ITP but that loop OTP would have been wonderful and another about 20 miles out from it. Maybe the Lakewood connector part and a NW highway, but all the stuff that got canned where Freedom Parkway stands, we are better without that. I understand the need to connect the Stone Mountain Freeway to downtown, but too much historic Atlanta stands in between.

My original argument was about OTP, not ITP. If this outer loop had started back in the 60s and 70s when places like East Cobb and Roswell and Gwinnett were still very rural, it would have been fine. A similar map to the one cq listed exists from about the same era here in the DFW area. Some proposed routes never came to be, but much of the footprint of what is here now was platted out and not developed on decades ago. Atlanta counties, instead, built in the path of these proposed routes as there was no agency with teeth to plan something large scale.


The biggest need.... too late now... but I call it the Mall Loop. Arbor Station to Town Center to Perimeter to Gwinnett Place to Stonecrest. Sorely needed. Then there is now room for the Northern Arc on top of that. Don't know if both these needed southern compliments, but one or the other needed to be built around the southern burbs as well.

The lack of ability to travel east and west across the northern suburbs is a huge, huge downfall for the metro area. NIMBYism at its worst.

[AnsleyPark]

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/...914&j=81097761

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/...914&j=81097761

I'll still be riding MARTA and have the same or better headways!

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by cqholt

I'll still be riding MARTA and have the same or better headways!

Good for you! I sure wish MARTA could serve many, many others as well as it does for lucky folks like you.