Chambliss, Isakson Seek to Include Study of Two Proposed New Interstates in National Highway Funding Bill

Chambliss, Isakson Seek to Include Study of Two Proposed New Interstates in National Highway Funding Bill

Study of Both Proposed Highways already included in House highway version bill

U.S. Senators Saxby Chambliss, R-GA, and Johnny Isakson, R-GA, have offered two amendments to the national highway funding bill seeking money to study two new interstate highways that would boost local economies in Georgia and the Southeast.

Money for studying the two proposed highways was included by Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-GA, in the House version of the national highway spending bill, which passed on March 10. The Senate is debating the highway bill this week.

The first amendment by Chambliss and Isakson would create a study of proposed new Interstate 14, an east-west highway that would link Augusta, Macon, and Columbus, Georgia, connecting through Montgomery, Alabama and going to Natchez, Mississippi. The second amendment would create a study of proposed new Interstate 3, a north-south highway that would link Savannah and Augusta, Georgia to Knoxville, Tennessee. Both proposed highways are designed to remove through-traffic from existing two-lane roads, while providing economic stimulus for communities that are now bypassed by existing interstate highways.

"Creating these new interstates will also deliver highway equity to vast regions of the South that were shortchanged by previous construction cycles," said Chambliss. "Many in these regions still suffer from the lack of economic parity with America. Eighty percent of jobs in America are located within ten miles of an interstate. It is my hope that the addition of ‘I-3' and ‘I-14' will also provide much needed economic development and job creation for these regions."

"It is a very worthy idea to study the feasibility of these two proposed highways because both would be such a big boost to some local communities in Georgia and in other Southeastern states that desperately need it," Isakson said.

Norwood says he believes the final plan for Interstate 14 will go much further than the proposal in the existing legislation. "By the time I-14 reaches the final planning stage, I believe we will be looking at a new Interstate 14 running from an interchange with I-10 west of Austin, Texas, to the Grand Strand in South Carolina," Norwood said. The former Augusta dentist says since the original proposals were introduced last year, interest and support for extending the project has poured in from across the Deep South. "Like Georgia, many of our Southern sister states are suffering from the same lack of east-west Interstate access, and are now willing to pool their lobbying efforts into one unified campaign for a region-wide highway project." Norwood believes that regional approach will produce near-guaranteed legislative success for the effort, after years of limited results by individual states lobbying for internal highway improvements.

The proposed new Interstate 3 would be designated as The 3rd Infantry Division Highway, named for the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart. The Division served as the "Tip of the Spear" in the war on terror in Iraq and the 3 rd ID soldiers conquered Najaf, seized Saddam International Airport and Saddam Hussein's palaces, and led the fighting on the day of Baghdad's historic liberation. The proposed route for I-3 would provide a highway link between strategic defense interests in our region including Fort Gordon, Eisenhower Army Regional Medical Center, the Augusta Veterans Administration Hospitals, Fort Stewart, Hunter Army Airfield, and the Port of Savannah among others. I-3 would also provide a long-needed North-South interstate access for Augusta, Georgia's second largest city and would provide a direct interstate link between Fort Gordon in Augusta and Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah.

The proposed new Interstate 14 would be named after the 14 th Amendment, which guaranteed equal rights for all Americans. It is an east-west route that runs through many counties in the Black Belt, a region of the Southeast in need of economic development.

"It may take a decade to bring these projects to full completion," said Chambliss. "They are not a quick or easy fix, however they are the necessary, equitable and common sense solutions."

The measures would require the Secretary of Transportation to study and report to the appropriate committees of Congress, before December 31, 2005, the steps and estimated funding necessary to designate and construct these new inter-state highways.

http://isakson.senate.gov/press/2005/042805interstates.htm