Interstate 475 (I-475) is a
auxiliary Interstate Highway
Auxiliary Interstate Highways (also called three-digit Interstate Highways) are a supplemental subset of the freeways within the Interstate Highway System of the United States.
Auxiliary routes are generally classified as spur routes, which con ...
in
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, splitting off from
I-75
Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from St ...
/
State Route 540 (SR 540) and
bypassing Macon. It is also
unsigned
Unsigned can refer to:
* An unsigned artist is a musical artist or group not attached or signed to a record label
** Unsigned Music Awards, ceremony noting achievements of unsigned artists
** Unsigned band web, online community
* Similarly, the c ...
State Route 408 (SR 408). This is the preferred route for through traffic, as I-75 enters
Downtown Macon and reduces to four lanes (two in either direction; undergoing widening), and has a
speed limit
Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed - expres ...
, in addition to the
highway interchange
In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, using ...
with
I-16 I16 may refer to:
* Interstate 16, an interstate highway in the U.S. state of Georgia
* Polikarpov I-16, a Soviet fighter aircraft introduced in the 1930s
* Halland Regiment
* , a Japanese Type C submarine
* i16, a name for the 16-bit signed integ ...
.
Route description
I-475 carries six lanes (three in each direction) throughout its entire route (expanding to eight lanes at both junctions with I-75), except at its northernmost terminus with I-75, where it briefly reduces to four lanes.
The road has also been equipped with
traffic camera
A traffic camera is a video camera which observes vehicular traffic on a road. Typically, traffic cameras are put along major roads such as highways, freeways, expressways and arterial roads, and are connected by optical fibers buried alongside or ...
s, which are a part of the
Georgia Navigator Georgia Navigator (sometimes also as Georgia NaviGAtor) is an Advanced Traffic Management System used in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is operated by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), and was first activated in April 1996, just befo ...
system that has been extended via
fiber optics
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...
all the way from the
Atlanta metropolitan area
Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ...
, nearly to the north-northwest.
The entire length of I-475 is part of the
National Highway System, a system of routes determined to be the most important for the nation's economy, mobility, and defense.
History
Built in stages between 1965 and 1967, I-475 was originally built with two lanes in each direction, and a wide
median
In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...
with forest, mostly of
sweetgum
''Liquidambar'', commonly called sweetgum
(star gum in the UK),
gum, redgum, satin-walnut, or American storax, is the only genus in the flowering plant family Altingiaceae and has 15 species. They were formerly often treated in Hamamelidaceae ...
trees. When the one lane was added in each direction, every bit of the median was paved, with a full-lane-wide
shoulder in both directions instead of the normal very narrow ones, and a
Jersey barrier designed to prevent head-on collisions, instead of leaving, replanting any trees, other
landscaping or native vegetation.
In 1965, the entire length of the highway was under construction;
it opened two years later. At the time, I-75 going into Macon was not yet complete.
The Bibb County Commission named the highway in honor of former Commission Chair Larry Justice, who retired in 2000.
Exit list
See also
*
*
References
External links
Kurumi - Georgia I-475
{{3di, 75
75-4 Georgia
75-4
Transportation in Macon, Georgia
4 Georgia
Transportation in Bibb County, Georgia
Transportation in Monroe County, Georgia