North and South Marietta Parkway form a
ring road
A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...
in
Marietta, Georgia
Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Cobb County, Georgia, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 60,972. The 2019 estimate was 60,867, making it one of Atlanta's largest suburbs. Marietta is the fourth largest ...
that was once designated as Georgia State Route 120 Loop (SR 120 Loop) before route realignments in 2007. The full loop is approximately in circumference and has an interchange with
Interstate 75 (I-75) twice, once on the north side of Marietta and once on the south side. The southern segment of the road is designated as a part of
SR 120 and the northern segment forms
SR 120 Alternate (SR 120 Alt.).
SR 5 is
concurrent
Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to:
Law
* Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea''
* Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...
with SR 120 Alt. until the intersection with SR 120, and then with SR 120 for a short distance before continuing south.
Route description
History
SR 120 Loop was built over an approximately 20-year span from 1967 to 1989. The first sections complete and open to traffic extended east of US 41 and included the
interchanges
Interchange may refer to:
Transport
* Interchange (road), a collection of ramps, exits, and entrances between two or more highways
* Interchange (freight rail), the transfer of freight cars between railroad companies
* Interchange station, a rai ...
with then-new I-75, and with mainline SR 120. While the northern part went through what is still
farmland
Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...
, the southern part went through existing neighborhoods, destroying several homes and cutting-off several streets, much like I-75 had done previously.
Initially, mainline SR 120 followed what is now the northern part of the loop between
Roswell Road and US 41: a move that resulted in the removal of the portion of SR 120 from US 41 at the
Big Chicken
The Big Chicken is a KFC restaurant in Marietta, Georgia, which features a steel-sided structure designed in the appearance of a chicken rising up from the top of the building. It is located at the intersection of Cobb Parkway ( U.S. ...
to the eastern SR 120 Loop interchange. This was changed in the early 1970s to the configuration still known to locals today. The northern portion of the Loop is distinct in that it ended at a partial
diamond interchange
A diamond interchange is a common type of road junction, used where a controlled-access highway crosses a minor road.
Design
The freeway itself is grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge. Approaching the ...
at US 41 (then
SR 3E, now
SR 3), with the roadway built-up for a future full interchange.
Work did not commence again on the remainder of the highway until the late 1970s. Work to upgrade Clay Street from US 41 to
SR 360 (Powder Springs Street) included a relocation of part of the street to an
underpass
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube constr ...
beneath the
Louisville and Nashville Railroad
The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States.
Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of the ...
(now
CSX
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
, originally
Western and Atlantic Railroad
The Western & Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia (W&A) is a railroad owned by the State of Georgia and currently leased by CSX, which CSX operates in the Southeastern United States from Atlanta, Georgia, to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
It was fo ...
). When work was completed, it finished the southern half of the route and the highway was extended. Clay Street would later be renamed South Marietta Parkway with exception to Old Clay Street, which remains as a residential street connecting the Loop to
SR 5 (Atlanta Street). Northwest of Manget Street, the highway went diagonally through existing neighborhoods, again destroying several homes. Atlanta Street was severed, but Atlanta Road was built next to it on its west side, taking more homes. Part of Powder Springs Street was permanently torn out, leaving the rest of it north to the town square as Old Powder Springs Street. The relocated Powder Springs Street was angled off to the west to become the western section of the Loop, and was extended north just past Whitlock Avenue to Polk Street.
![Georgia5and120loop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Georgia5and120loop.jpg)
Work began again in the early 1980s to complete most of the northern quadrant when the roadway was extended from the previously-mentioned diamond interchange to connect to and take over Page Street. The planned overpass of US 41 was never built and an at-grade intersection was put there instead. However, the ramps still curiously remain, with the southern (eastbound) one actually used as an entrance ramp, and the northern (westbound) one connecting to Barnes Mill Road instead. Page Street had previously ended at Fairground Street, and the extension completed all parts of the loop except one final part.
1989 saw completion of the final leg of the loop at its northwestern corner, going west past Church Street (by then a
one-way street
One-way traffic (or uni-directional traffic) is traffic that moves in a single direction. A one-way street is a street either facilitating only one-way traffic, or designed to direct vehicles to move in one direction. One-way streets typical ...
which at the time was SR 5 southbound). This portion took out the Williams Brothers Lumber Company, and involved building an entrenched roadway with an overpass for Kennesaw Avenue (the original US 41 and
SR 3) and the L&N Railroad, with the roadway tying into the extension of the new Powder Springs Street, which previously ended at Polk Street. The completion of this final leg resulted in the completion of the loop. In addition, SR 5 was relocated out of downtown Marietta onto part of the new loop to the west; it was later rerouted through a completely different city, going down Austell Road instead of Powder Springs Road, and may be rerouted yet again off of the loop and completely away from Marietta onto
Barrett Parkway
Ernest W. Barrett Parkway (more commonly Barrett Parkway) is a major thoroughfare in the northwestern part of the Atlanta metropolitan area, in the north-central part of Cobb County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. It travels from the southeastern e ...
.
In October 2007, the portion of SR 120 along Roswell Street between US 41 and SR 5 and SR 120 Loop was downgraded to a local city street, along with portions of SR 5. Since SR 120 required a new routing, SR 120 mainline was moved to the southern part of SR 120 Loop, and SR 120 Alternate was created on the north loop. As a result, SR 120 Loop no longer exists, though only some of the signs have been changed, leaving a hodgepodge of confusing and contradictory information in different places, in addition to there being no
public notice
Public notice is a notice given to the public regarding certain types of legal proceedings.
__TOC__
By government
Public notices are issued by a government agency or legislative body in certain rulemaking or lawmaking proceeding.
It is a requ ...
of the change by the
Georgia Department of Transportation
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is the organization in charge of developing and maintaining all state and federal roadways in the U.S. state of Georgia. In addition to highways, the department also has a limited role in developin ...
(GDOT). Compared to the northern route, the new routing takes mainline SR 120 around Marietta the indirect way, making it a longer distance by going out of the way to the south and back north, causing drivers to turn on a different road to stay on the same highway at a third point at Powder Springs Road (in addition to either end where it turns off to original route), and causing further driving delays with more
traffic light
Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at intersection (road), road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traf ...
s. In January 2008, GDOT crews began discreetly changing and removing signs along SR 120 Loop and the SR 120 mainline.
The remaining state-maintained part of Roswell Road between the eastern intersection with the loop and US 41 was renumbered
SR 3 Connector, the previous designation of a completely different road in Marietta. SR 5 currently shares the west end of the Loop, west from Cherokee Street (northbound only) to Church Street (southbound only), southwest to Whitlock Avenue, south to Powder Springs Road, and turning east at that intersection to Atlanta Road. This is a complete roundabout and unnecessary routing, since Atlanta Road turns into Cherokee Street via East Park Square (the street's name for one block along the
town square
A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true square, geometric square, used for community gathe ...
), and since Church Street / West Park Square / Old Powder Springs Street connects to it at a one-way cross street.
Names
Along the north side from Whitlock Avenue (where SR 120 continues west, becoming Dallas Highway), northeast to Church Street, east to Roswell Road, and southeast to Lower Roswell Road, it is known as North Marietta Parkway. Much of this route used to be known as Page Street. Almost all of it is in the county's northeast quadrant for
street address
An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used to give the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along ...
es, except west of Church Street where it is northwest.
Along the west side from Whitlock Avenue south to the "new" Powder Springs Street, then east to Atlanta Road, southeast to Manget Street, east to I-75, then northeast to Lower Roswell Road, it is known as South Marietta Parkway. Much of this route used to be known as Clay Street. Almost all of it is in the county's southeast quadrant for street addresses, except west of the railroad tracks where it is southwest.
Purpose
Its main purpose is as a
bypass route
A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety. A bypass spe ...
around the
central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
of Marietta, like most loop roads. However, it is also a common surface street for locals. The two main interchanges with I-75 in Marietta are along this road in the eastern part of Marietta.
Major intersections
See also
*
*
References
{{reflist
120 Loop
Parkway
A parkway is a landscaped thoroughfare.''"parkway."''Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (14 Apr. 2007). The term is particularly used for a roadway in a park or ...
Transportation in Cobb County, Georgia
Parkways in the United States