Highway Landscape (Atlanta, Savannah, Macon: credit, landscaping, high school)

[cyclingdawg]

Which city has the nicest up kept and or worst unkept roads. Compared to Florida, Georgia roads are uglier in most places with a few exceptions. The closest roads I found that remind me of Florida is North Augusta with palm trees and greenery lining the median but the other roads in Augusta and Macon were not as clean and overgrown with weeds. Why doesn't the Peach State take more pride in its roads.

[Shagbark Hickory]

Who gives a damn.

We need to be blowing money on landscaping the side of the highway like we all need another hole in our heads.

The prettiest highway landscaping and most blantant waste of money is in Gwinnett county along Ronald Regan parkway. More recently they are landscaping highway on/off ramps in gwinnett. We'll see how long that lasts.

The reasons they have highway landscaping in florida is because some palm tree grower bribed some corrupt politicians so they could get the contract for some $50,000 per palm tree.

[cyclingdawg]

Originally Posted by Shagbark Hickory

Who gives a damn.

We need to be blowing money on landscaping the side of the highway like we all need another hole in our heads.

The prettiest highway landscaping and most blantant waste of money is in Gwinnett county along Ronald Regan parkway. More recently they are landscaping highway on/off ramps in gwinnett. We'll see how long that lasts.

The reasons they have highway landscaping in florida is because some palm tree grower bribed some corrupt politicians so they could get the contract for some $50,000 per palm tree.

I am not nessacerly saying that Augusta, Macon and Savannah need to landscape with $50,000 palm trees but they could at least cut the grass twice a month. Some roads have weeds growing as tall as my car and it makes the city look like they don't care and gives me a negative view of the city meaning I will not do business there. Atlanta has nice looking roads and not all are like miniature gardens but are just cut regularly. It is time for the other Georgia cities to follow suit. If money is an issue, make the prisoners do it or let high schoolers volunteer a few hours to cut the medians and pick up trash to teach young teenagers to care for their community and may be allow them to earn extra credits for graduation.

[Shagbark Hickory]

The reason for that is because those cities in the southern end of the state use a species of grass on highway rights-of-way called Bahiagrass which is a very aggressively growing grass. It can grow as fast as 2" a day during the peak of it's growing season, especially in sandy soil with lots of rain.
This grass has a reputation for actually being a very bad grass for highways because it requires very frequent mowing and it looks very unkempt as you've pointed out. Then again it's impossible to kill and has roots that can extend 10 feet down so it's very drought tolerant so for erosion control it's hard to beat.

Now in the atlanta area and in the northern part of the state tall fescue is used commonly on the R-o-w's and that is not nearly as aggressive althought it can grow 12-18" or more if you count the seed stalks. Bermudagrass is also used which rarely grows taller than 6" so this does not look nearly as unkempt.

I didn't mean to sound persnickety before btw. I just get annoyed when they plow down acres and acres of woods and replace with groves of crepe myrtles and sod.

[thedudewiththeplan]

Some of the most unkempt and ugly highways and interstates I have seen in GA have been in the suburbs of Atlanta. Trash and litter all over the side of the road and broken down cars and truck tires all over the place.