Interstate 3 a good idea but needs to be redesigned

[therealpattman]

Originally Posted by WanderingImport

Why would you create a second perimeter around Augusta? That is just asking for more sprawl.

Also, the reason I didn't connect your proposed I-63 to I-26 before the Greenville-Spartanburg split is because Greenville could benefit more by having a north route to Asheville and beyond.

I understand completely but the cost to build an additional controlled access road over a mountain right now is not feasible. Thanks though.

I designed the second perimeter road because I-520 around the city can not and will not hold up to possibly 2 interstates ending at it and 1 servicing it. Lets just say this project as well as I-14 were constructed. That would be a nightmare on traffic on I-520 and I-20 which are already pretty congested as it is. Plus with Columbia County growing as fast as it is, a new means of getting people in and out of the suburban areas must be constructed, Washington RD is not feasible and the perimeter would ease traffic in the area. I am thinking about this from a 50 to 100 year stand point not 20 years. I say build it now and expect good things or you can not build it and end up with congestion and no real means to build a new route. I have lived in Augusta my whole life so I know how the traffic patterns have shifted and changed.

[JoeP]

i-26 is pretty close to Greenville. I don't see the value in having an additional interstate so close. Would it be nice? Yes. But I just don't see it happening.

[Saintmarks]

I proposed this idea on another thread. Since the opposition to I-3 has come primarily from residents in the Blue Ridge Mountains, let I-3 continue from Savannah to Augusta, then angle NW to skirt the Athens area then arc even more WNW around the southern base of the mountains, going north of Gainesville and Canton, connecting over to Rome and then to proposed interstates that run east and west to Huntsville and on to Memphis. This gives an alternate route around metro Atlanta. This combined with an extension of I-185, (maybe even renaming it as a southern extension of 1-81 that terminates in Knoxville as has been proposed) south to Florida and north to Chattanooga and 1-14 going east and west thru the middle of the state would be like a mega outer bypass from Atlanta any way you would be going and benefit the rest of the state.