Interstate 85 (I-85) is a major

Interstate Highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

that travels northeast–southwest in the US state of

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 ...

. It enters the state at the

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

state line near

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

, and

Lanett, Alabama Lanett is a city in Chambers County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 6,468, down from 7,897 in 2000. Lanett, originally called Bluffton, is located in eastern Alabama, on the Chattahoochee River, southwest of Atlant ...

, traveling through 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 ...

and to the

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

state line, where it crosses the

Savannah River The Savannah River is a major river in the southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Two tributaries of the Savannah, the Tugaloo River and the Chattooga River, form the norther ...

near

Lake Hartwell Lake Hartwell is a man-made reservoir bordering Georgia and South Carolina and encompassing parts of the Savannah, Tugaloo, and Seneca rivers. Lake Hartwell is one of the Southeastern United States' largest recreation lakes. The lake was created b ...

. I-85 connects

North Georgia North Georgia is the northern hilly/mountainous region in the U.S. state of Georgia. At the time of the arrival of settlers from Europe, it was inhabited largely by the Cherokee. The counties of north Georgia were often scenes of important eve ...

with

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

, to the southwest, and with

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

to the northeast. Within Georgia, I-85 is also designated as the unsigned State Route 403 (SR 403). I-85 in Georgia usually travels roughly parallel with the route of US Route 29 (US 29). However, from Atlanta northeast to South Carolina, I-85 ventures away from that route, traveling about halfway between US 29 and the combination of US 23 and US 123. Within the city of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, I-85 has a

concurrency 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

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 ...

known as the "

Downtown Connector In Downtown Atlanta, the Downtown Connector or 75/85 (pronounced "seventy-five eighty-five") is the concurrent section of Interstate 75 and Interstate 85 through the core of the city. Beginning at the I-85/Langford Parkway interchange, th ...

". After splitting from Downtown Connector, it is known as Northeast Expressway until its junction with I-285 (The Perimeter).

Route description

Alabama state line to I-185

I-85 enters the state of Georgia from Alabama via twin bridges over the

Chattahoochee River The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chatta ...

, and then it immediately skirts the town of

, with

Kia Kia Corporation, commonly known as Kia (, ; formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry and Kia Motors Corporation), is a South Korean multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It is South Korea's second lar ...

's multibillion-dollar plant located adjacent to the freeway just east of West Point. After leaving West Point, I-85 enters the

LaGrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi Lagrangiaspur freeway, I-185, to the Columbus metropolitan area. This is the only connection between Columbus and the

Interstate Highway System The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

. An stretch between the Alabama line and exit 18 in LaGrange is serving as an environmental and technological testbed for a project called The Ray, a partnership involving federal and state officials, the private sector, academia and philanthropic organizations. Among the projects are a solar-paved roadway, enhanced road striping for autonomous vehicles, and plantings along the

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

to improve runoff and possibly serve as a harvestable crop.

From I-185 through Atlanta

From LaGrange, I-85 heads northeastward toward

. Before reaching Atlanta, the highway crosses the

CSX Transportation 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. ...

A&WP Subdivision twice (in the Grantville area) and passes through the suburbs of

Moreland The City of Merri-bek is a local government area in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. It comprises the inner northern suburbs between 4 and 11 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. The Merri-bek local government area covers , and in June 2018, ...

Newnan Newnan is a city in Metro Atlanta and the county seat of Coweta County, Georgia, about southwest of Atlanta. Its population was 42,549 at the 2020 census, up from 33,039 in 2010. History Newnan was established as county seat of Coweta Coun ...

, Fairburn, and Union City. The highway then intersects I-285 at its southwest end in College Park. This interchange is one of the most complex interchanges in the country, as I-285 and I-85 stay side by side through the interchange, which actually has two parts. The interchange also features many other, not as important local access roads at the same time; meanwhile providing access to

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport , also known as Atlanta Hartsfield–Jackson International Airport, Atlanta Airport, Hartsfield, Hartsfield–Jackson and, formerly, as the Atlanta Municipal Airport, is the primary internatio ...

. I-85 then runs along the northwestern boundary of the airport in

East Point East Point is the name of several places: In Australia * East Point, Northern Territory ** East Point Military museum located in East Point, Northern Territory In Canada *East Point, Prince Edward Island In Hong Kong: *East Point, Hong Kong In ...

, providing access to the domestic terminal. At the southwestern edge of Atlanta's city limits, I-85 merges with

to form the

, which is 12 to 14 lanes wide. At the southern edge of

Downtown Atlanta Downtown Atlanta is the central business district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The larger of the city's two other commercial districts ( Midtown and Buckhead), it is the location of many corporate and regional headquarters; city, county, s ...

, this freeway has an interchange with the major east–west Interstate Highway,

I-20 Interstate 20 (I‑20) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I-20 runs beginning at an interchange with I-10 in Scroggins Draw, Texas, and ending at an interchange with I-95 in Florence, South Carolina. Between ...

. The two freeways then skirt the eastern edge of downtown, running due north, passing through the

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

campus and the

Atlantic Station Atlantic Station is a neighborhood on the northwestern edge of Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States comprising a retail district, office space, condominiums, townhomes and apartment buildings. First planned in the mid-1990s and officially op ...

section of Atlanta before the two highways split, with I-75 exits via the right three lanes and then heads northwest while I-85 uses the left three lanes and then heads northeast.

Atlanta to South Carolina state line

Heading northbound after the Brookwood Interchange with I-75, I-85 is routed along a 10-lane-wide viaduct from the Buford Highway Connector (exit 86) to SR 400 (exit 87). Continuing northeast of Atlanta, I-85 continues through the northeastern suburbs, bypassing

Chamblee Chamblee ( ) is a city in northern DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, northeast of Atlanta. The population was 30,164 as of the 2020 census. History The area that would later become Chamblee was originally dairy farms. During the late ninet ...

and

Doraville Doraville is a city in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States northeast of Atlanta. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 10,623. History Doraville was incorporated by an act of the Georgia General Assembly, approved December 15, 18 ...

, where there is another intersection with I-285 (nicknamed

Spaghetti Junction Spaghetti junction is a nickname sometimes given to a complex or massively intertwined road traffic interchange that is said to resemble a plate of spaghetti. Such interchanges may incorporate a variety of interchange design elements in orde ...

). The Interstate then travels through the northeastern suburbs of Atlanta, including Lilburn,

Duluth , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

, Lawrenceville, and Buford. The Interstate has freeway interchanges with SR 316 in Duluth and

I-985 Interstate 985 (I-985) is a auxiliary Interstate Highway in Northeast Georgia. It links the Atlanta metropolitan area to the city of Gainesville via Suwanee. I-985 is also known as the Sidney Lanier Parkway, after the musician and p ...

in Suwanee, which provides a link to Gainesville. I-85 eventually leaves the Atlanta metropolitan area and narrows down to four lanes (two in each direction) past exit 129 as the highway continues into the rural parts of northeast Georgia. At

, which was formed by the damming of the

, I-85 crosses the Savannah River into

Express lanes

I-85 has the first express lanes in Georgia, located in Gwinnett and DeKalb counties; they were originally high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV lanes). From Chamblee–Tucker Road (exit 94) to Old Peachtree Road (exit 109), travelers that utilize the converted lanes will be charged a toll varying from , depending on traffic conditions and usage. Though not signed on the freeway, they are high-occupancy toll lanes (HOT lanes), which means registered transport vehicles, carpools with three or more occupants, motorcycles, and busses are exempt from toll charges as long as they are registered as such. Tolls are collected using an electronic toll collection system. All travelers that use the lane must have a Peach Pass sticker to avoid fines. Starting in November 2014,

SunPass SunPass is an electronic toll collection system within the state of Florida, United States. It was created in 1999 by the Florida Department of Transportation's (FDOT's) Office of Toll Operations, operating now as a division of Florida's Turnpik ...

(Florida) and NC Quick Pass (North Carolina) are interoperable with Peach Pass, allowing motorists with those transponders to use the express lanes. On November 3, 2018, an extension to the express lanes opened, from its former ending at Old Peachtree Road to Hamilton Mill Road (exit 120). After this extension, four more northbound exit points were added: at SR 317 (exit 111), I-985 (exit 113), SR 20 (exit 115), and at its end at Hamilton Mill Road (exit 120). In addition, four new access points were added to the southbound express lanes: at SR 20, SR 317, Old Peachtree Road, and at the connection to the preexisting express lanes. The project costed $178 million (equivalent to $ in ). The express lanes extension will incur a separate charge from the existing express lanes. This is to decrease the impact of high congestion on the existing express lanes on the dynamic pricing of the express lanes extension, since lower congestion is expected on the new extension of the express lanes. Funds generated from the express lanes will be used to defray the costs of construction, operations, and maintenance of the lanes. Long-term revenue allocation is being studied and a decision about future excess revenues will be made later in the project process. Proponents for the express lanes say it is to provide commuters with a more reliable, free-flow commute option; complement the state's multimodal approach to managing traffic demand; and establish the vision for a future system of HOT lanes in the region. Detractors point out that existing infrastructure was reused for the express lanes and that commute times on the nonpaying travel lanes have doubled since implementation.

History

Originally constructed as a four- to six-lane expressway in the 1950s, the stretch of I-85 between the southern merge with I-75 and North Druid Hills Road was reconstructed as part of 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)'s Freeing the Freeways program. This project included rebuilding all overpasses, new HOV-ready ramps (with the system implemented in 1996), and a widening of freeway capacity. Concurrent with this project was the construction of the Civic Center station as part of the West Peachtree Street overpass, which opened in December 1981. The section between LaGrange and Newnan was incomplete for a much-longer time that the rest of I-85 in Georgia and required a two-lane detour on US 27 and US 29 between those cities. The northern section between Newnan and Grantville was completed first, then the stretch further south to LaGrange was completed in 1977. The portion of the highway from the Buford Highway Connector to SR 400 was constructed during the early 1980s and was designed as a replacement for the original four-lane routing of I-85 (now SR 13). In addition, the new viaduct was designed to accommodate connections to the SR 400 tollway (then in planning), HOV lanes, and a bridge carrying the

North Line North Line may refer to: *Far North Line, Scotland *Gjøvik Line, Norway *Main North Line, New Zealand *Main North railway line, New South Wales, Australia * Milwaukee District/North Line, Illinois, United States *Northern line (underground railway) ...

(then under construction, now the Red Line). Until 2000, the state of Georgia used the sequential exit numbering system on all of its Interstate Highways. The first exit on each highway would begin with the number 1 and increase numerically with each exit. In 2000, GDOT switched to a mileage-based exit system, in which the exit number corresponded to the nearest milepost. On October 1, 2011, GDOT converted the HOV lanes in northern Atlanta into express/ HOT lanes. From Atlanta, I-85 north was originally slated to be built through the city of Athens to provide an easy link between the capital city and the University of Georgia. However, then-Governor Ernest Vandiver worked to make sure the highway traversed his home county of Franklin, a stretch that now bears his name. At the time, he promised equivalent access for Athens and Gainesville. It was not until the completion of SR 316 in the 1990s that there was finally a relatively quick, multilane expressway connecting Athens and Atlanta, ( US 78 is also multilane between Athens and Atlanta but it is not expressway-grade) although SR 316 still is largely at-grade. On March 30, 2017, a fire started at approximately 6:15 pm in a storage area under the highway along Piedmont Road in the

Piedmont Heights Piedmont Heights is an intown neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, founded in the early 20th century as a streetcar suburb. It is located between the BeltLine on the west; across from the Sherwood Forest neighborhood; I-85 on the ...

area of Midtown Atlanta. This caused the collapse of a section of I-85 northbound. The highway in both directions needed to be demolished and replaced. According to GDOT, the work was completed ahead of schedule. Both the north and south bound portions of the Interstate were open by May 15, 2017, a month ahead of expectations.

Future

In May 2017, the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners voted to accept about $6 million (equivalent to $ in ) in federal funds, to be used to acquire land to build a new diamond interchange on I-85 at SR 324/Gravel Springs Road. The new exit will be located between exit 115, for SR 20, and exit 120, for Hamilton Mill Road/Hamilton Mill Parkway. The board voted in July 2019 to accept about $20 million (equivalent to $ in ) in federal and state grants to pay for the construction of the new interchange. E.R. Snell Contractors will complete the work. Since an overpass already exists for SR 324, on- and offramps, I-85 deceleration lanes, traffic signals, and turn lanes are the main aspects of the interchange to be added. The main goal for the new interchange is to provide another access point from I-85 to

Mall of Georgia Mall of Georgia is an enclosed super-regional shopping mall located in unincorporated Gwinnett County, Georgia, near the city of Buford, northeast of Atlanta. Opened in 1999, it is currently the largest shopping mall in both the Atlanta Metropol ...

. Construction of the interchange is expected to start in late 2018 and will be completed in about 18 months.

Exit list

Auxiliary routes

There are three auxiliary Interstate Highways of I-85 within Georgia and a fourth that was proposed, and then cancelled. I-185 is a spur from

LaGrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaColumbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

. It mainly provides a freeway between the Columbus metropolitan area, Georgia, Columbus and Atlanta metropolitan area, Atlanta metropolitan areas. I-285 is a heavily traveled beltway around

, which helps I-75 and I-85 drivers to bypass the city. Interstate 485 (Georgia), I-485 was a short freeway in Atlanta (now Freedom Parkway) that was incomplete for many years and then Decommissioned highway, decommissioned due to Atlanta freeway revolts, local opposition.

is a spur from I-85 to Gainesville.

References

External links

* {{3di, 85 Interstate Highways in Georgia (U.S. state), 85 Interstate 85, Georgia Transportation in Harris County, Georgia Transportation in Troup County, Georgia Transportation in Meriwether County, Georgia Transportation in Coweta County, Georgia Transportation in Fulton County, Georgia Roads in Atlanta Transportation in Clayton County, Georgia Transportation in DeKalb County, Georgia Transportation in Gwinnett County, Georgia Transportation in Barrow County, Georgia Transportation in Jackson County, Georgia Transportation in Banks County, Georgia Transportation in Franklin County, Georgia Transportation in Hart County, Georgia High-occupancy toll roads