US 1 in Georgia

According to Act-test-centers, US 1 is a US Highway in the US state of Georgia. The road forms a north-south route in the east of the state, between the Florida border at Folkston and the South Carolina border at Augusta. Except through Augusta, the road does not pass through larger cities. The route is 354 kilometers long. The road goes under the administrative number SR-4.

Travel directions

At Folkston, the road crosses the St. Mary’s River, which also marks the border with Florida. US 1 in Florida comes from the city of Jacksonville. The road has 2×2 lanes, narrow emergency lanes and a central reservation, but it is not a highway as there are no single-level intersections. Via a very spacious junction just past Folkston, US 301 turns north towards Jesup. US 1 is then double-numbered with US 23 and runs northwest with 2×2 lanes. The area is flat and very densely wooded. Just south of the road is the impenetrable Okefenokee Swamp. You then reach the regional town of Waycross, through which the road runs. One crosses theUS 82, which runs from Albany to Brunswick, and US 84, which runs from Valdosta to Savannah. The road then continues north, with 2×2 lanes. Just past the village of Alma, US 23 turns off toward Macon, while US 1 continues north. You then arrive in an area with less dense forests and also regularly open fields. At Baxley you cross US 341, the main road from the Macon region to the coast at Brunswick.

The road is quite quiet and very rural but has many sections with 2×2 lanes and has the appearance of a highway between the intersections. One passes through the town called Santa Claus and at Lyons crosses US 280, the road from Columbus to Savannah, a major east-west axis. Not far after that, one crosses Interstate 16, the highway from Macon and Atlanta to the coastal city of Savannah. The road then also has 2×2 lanes and leads to the town of Swainsboro, where the US 80crosses an east-west highway from Macon to Statesboro and Savannah. The town has a ring road, so through traffic does not have to go through the center. After that, US 1 has one lane in each direction over longer distances. At Louisville, US 221 joins from Douglas to turn a little further, at Wrens, to head toward McCormick, South Carolina. US 221 runs more or less parallel to US 1. The road has 2×2 lanes again and runs past Fort Gordon to Augusta, a city with 192,000 inhabitants and an agglomeration more than twice as large. One then crosses Interstate 520, Augusta’s ring road, after which the road runs through downtown and crosses the Savannah River, also the border with South Carolina. TheUS 1 in South Carolina then continues toward Columbia.

History

According to liuxers, US 1 was created in 1926. The route has not been particularly modified since then. It is striking that the US 1 in Georgia runs a little further inland, and therefore does not run parallel to Interstate Highways, the I-95 is built a lot more east along the Atlantic coast. US 1 is therefore not a very important road in Georgia and is mainly important for regional traffic between the small towns on the route.

Significant upgrades have been made to US 1, meanwhile, a large part of the route has been widened to at least 4 lanes, with a different profile, partly as a 2×2 divided highway, partly as a narrow 4-lane road and partly as a 5-lane road with center turn lane. A large number of upgrades were not made until after 1990.

Augusta

One of the first major upgrades was Augusta’s first diversion, the so-called ‘Gordon Highway’. In 1957, the section over which US 1 runs, including the new bridge over the Savannah River on the border with South Carolina, opened. On the other side of the state, Folkston’s passage on the Florida border was also widened to 2×2 lanes in the 1950s.

Southern Georgia

In the mid-1960s, the first 10 miles of US 1 south of Waycross was widened to 2×2 lanes. However, the rest between Folkston and Waycross was not widened to a 2×2 divided highway until the early 1990s. This was part of the Governor’s Road Improvement Program. The northwest bypass of Waycross was also built in the mid-1990s, so that US 1 a bit on US 82piggyback. In the early to mid-2000s, US 1 was widened to 2×2 lanes between Waycross and north of Alma. The 2×2 section ended on the county line between Bacon County and Appling County at the time. In 2012, US 1 was widened further to Baxley to 2×2 lanes. In the early 1990s, US 1 north of Baxley had already been widened to a narrow 4-lane road. A new 2×2 bridge over the Altamaha River on the county line was built in 2016-2018.

Central Georgia

Around 2012-2013, US 1 between Lyons and I-16 was widened to 2×2 lanes, partly with reroutes. North of I-16, US 1 was widened to 2×2 lanes as far as Swainsboro as early as 2005, with a Swainsboro diversion opening in 2004. In 2010, US 1 between Swainsboro and Wadley was widened to 2×2 lanes. The more northerly section of US 1 between Wrens and Augusta was widened to 2×2 lanes in the early 1990s.

Traffic intensities

The section just after the Florida border still processes about 12,000 vehicles per day, but outside the towns and cities that quickly drops to around 3,000 vehicles. There are 24,000 vehicles in Waycross and between 5,000 and 9,000 vehicles further north. The road is really busy, especially considering the 2×2 lanes. However, the population of Georgia is growing strongly, which means that there is a need for good quality roads in the region. The busiest is the road in the city of Augusta with up to 32,000 vehicles per day.