Georgia State Route 400

State Route 400
Length:	53.75 mi[1][dead link] (86.50 km)
Formed:	1971, 1993
South end:	Interstate 85 in Buckhead
North end:	U.S. 19/S.R. 60/S.R. 115 in Dahlonega
Georgia State Routes < SR 388 SR 401 >

Georgia State Route 400 (known commonly as Georgia 400 or just 400, read in either case as "four hundred") is a highway in the U.S. state of Georgia, concurrent with U.S. 19 from exit 4B until its terminus just south of Dahlonega. Georgia 400 goes from Atlanta, at I-85, to Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Alpharetta, Cumming, Dawson County, and Dahlonega. Like the interstate highways, it is a limited-access road (with exit ramps instead of intersections), but unlike the interstates (which were renumbered by the GDOT in 2000), the exit numbers do not indicate mileage: they still go up sequentially one-by-one. Once 400 passes exit 17 (Georgia 306), it changes from a limited-access expressway into an at-grade divided highway with traffic lights, but still with a high speed limit of 65 miles per hour (105 km/h) and ends at the J.B. Jones Intersection at SR 60 in Lumpkin County.

Between Interstate 85 and Interstate 285, Georgia 400 is designated "T. Harvey Mathis Parkway"; upon reaching the Perimeter (I-285) and beyond, the highway is designated "Turner McDonald Parkway".

History

Original portion (I-285 to Georgia 306)

Planning for Georgia 400 began in 1954.^[2] The initial section north of I-285 was officially dedicated on May 24, 1971^[3] and subsequent additions to the north opened in stages through 1981. The road was subsequently widened in 1989 from its original four-lane configuration to eight lanes between I-285 and Holcomb Bridge Road. The widening projects were necessitated by the massive growth that Georgia 400 brought to northern Fulton and southern Forsyth counties. In December 2005, the Georgia Department of Transportation began widening the section from Holcomb Bridge Road to Windward Parkway from three to four lanes in the northbound direction and from two to four lanes from Windward Parkway to McFarland Parkway. Southbound, the highway is being widened to four lanes between McFarland Parkway and Holcomb Bridge Road. In addition, sound barrier walls and a concrete divider in the median are also being added.

Georgia 400 extension (I-85 to I-285)

Toll booth on Georgia 400 on the southbound side

Passing under Buckhead on GA 400 Southbound

Southbound lanes GA 400 north of Pitts Road overpass

The southern section of Georgia 400 (from I-285 to I-85) was the last section to be constructed. It is the only active toll road in Georgia, after the F.J. Torras Causeway toll between Brunswick and St. Simons Island on the southeastern Georgia coast was removed in 2003.^[4]

At one time, Georgia 400 was to connect to Interstate 675 in southeast DeKalb county; however, residents in northern DeKalb did not want the highway to cut through their neighborhoods, and a freeway revolt ensued, ending when Jimmy Carter had the plan terminated while he was governor of Georgia. This freeway was to be known as Interstate 475 (a number now used for the Macon bypass), a parallel route to the Downtown Connector which is just a few miles or kilometers further west through downtown and midtown. The point where this road would have had its interchange with the also-doomed Interstate 485 (now Freedom Parkway and Georgia 10 to Stone Mountain Expressway) is now the site of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. A later routing of I-485 would have had that number running from the Downtown Connector (I-75/85), west to the current library, then up what is now 400.

Nonetheless, the northern portion of the inside-the-Perimeter route remained alive, and after lawsuits by residents that spent numerous years in court, GDOT was able to force the extension through Buckhead. Dozens of homes were taken through eminent domain or the threat of it, and the highway was built right though the middle of formerly-secluded and forested neighborhoods. Many remaining residents now live on dead end streets with significant noise pollution or unsightly metal barrier walls.^{[citation needed]}

The road opened to traffic on August 1, 1993, after three years of construction. Existing exits were renumbered up by four to accommodate the extension, which has a single toll plaza in the middle of its length. Contrary to public belief, the bonds that funded the construction of Georgia 400 south of I-285 will not be paid off until 2011. There is also currently no direct access from Georgia 400 southbound to I-85 northbound or vice versa, except by an indirect route via Sidney Marcus Boulevard. In addition, the North Line for Atlanta's MARTA system was constructed in the median from the Glenridge Connector to south of Lenox Road, and was opened on June 8, 1996.

The Georgia 400 toll plaza, operated by the State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA), collects 50-cent tolls in both the northbound and southbound directions. Each direction has two open-road toll lanes, which collect tolls at highway speeds using the Georgia Cruise Card electronic tag, and seven gated toll lanes which accept either cash or Cruise Cards. The toll facility handles a total of approximately 120,000 vehicles per day. About 37% of transactions are paid via Cruise Card. The same technology is also used by SunPass in Florida, TxTag in Texas, and PikePass in Oklahoma; however, none of these has an agreement to accept the tags of the others.

In March 2009, local TV news reports began trying to generate controversy^{[neutrality disputed]} regarding tolls on the road, since SRTA reported that enough money has been collected to pay the bonds used to construct the road (though prepayment prior to 2011 is prohibited). However, the road costs two million dollars per year just to maintain (plus occasionnal repaving), and it would cost several million more for the demolition of the toll plaza. The road would then require money that the state does not have, as it has already committed to other projects which it cannot fund.^{[opinion needs balancing]} This includes the reconstruction of the tollway's northern interchange at I-285, expected to cost two billion dollars.

Major cities

Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs.

• Atlanta
• Cumming
• Dahlonega

Major intersections

The exits are numbered sequentially from south to north; the average annual daily traffic for each exit is noted (all ramps combined) and bolded AADT numbers referring to the two-way average for that stretch of Route 400.

County	Location	#	Mile	Destinations	Notes	AADT[5][6]
Fulton	Atlanta		0.0	Interstate 85 South – Downtown Atlanta, Atlanta Airport	Unsigned SR 403; southern terminus; southbound exit and northbound entrance	92,440
		1	0.6	Sidney Marcus Boulevard – to I-85 North	Southbound exit and northbound entrance	29,981
		2	2.8	SR 141 Conn (Lenox Road)	Single-point urban interchange	61,512
		Toll plaza – 2 axle vehicle $.50, 3 axles $1.50, $.50 per additional axle, both directions.				107,270
	Sandy Springs	3	6.6	Glenridge Perimeter Connector	Formerly SR 407 Loop; northbound use Exit 4A (unnumbered exit from 4A's collector-distributor lanes)	109,925
		4A	6.8	Interstate 285 East – Greenville, Augusta	Unsigned SR 407; southbound entrance ramp is a left merge
		4B	6.9	Interstate 285 West/US 19 South – Marietta, Chattanooga, Birmingham	Unsigned SR 407; US 19 joins northbound and leaves southbound; northbound entrance ramp is a left merge
		concurrency				180,780
		5	8.4	Abernathy Road – Dunwoody, Sandy Springs	Northbound exit split into 5A (Dunwoody) and 5B (Sandy Springs)	64,510
		5C	10.0	North Springs MARTA station	Southbound exit and northbound entrance only	5,409
		6	12.0	Northridge Road		51,216
	Roswell	7	15.0	SR 140 (Holcomb Bridge Road) – Roswell, Norcross	Northbound exit split into 7A (Norcross) and 7B (Roswell)	58,823
	Alpharetta	8	16.4	Mansell Road	North Point Mall	45,246
		9	18.3	Haynes Bridge Road	North Point Mall	28,675
		10	19.6	SR 120 (Old Milton Parkway) – Alpharetta		44,235
		11	21.0	Windward Parkway		53,932
Forsyth		12	23.8	McFarland Parkway	Northbound exit split into 12A (east) and 12B (west)	32,198
		13	28.0	SR 141 (Peachtree Parkway) – Cumming, Norcross	Johns Creek	30,502
		14	30.8	SR 20 – Cumming, Sugar Hill, Buford	Lake Lanier Islands; northbound exit split into separate east- and westbound exit ramps.	41,972
	Cumming	15	32.8	Bald Ridge Marina Road	Bald Ridge Marina, Cumming Fairgrounds	15,131
		16	34.7	Pilgrim Mill Road	Lake Sidney Lanier	8,979
		17	36.3	SR 306 (Keith Bridge Road) – Cumming, Gainesville		20,802
				Freeway ends; reverts to surface street
Dawson	Dawsonville			SR 53
				SR 136
Lumpkin			53.7	US 19 / SR 60 / SR 115	Northern terminus of SR 400, US 19 continues northbound

References

External links

• State Road and Tollway Authority homepage
• Near real-time traffic image of SR 400 South of Abernathy Rd
• Near real-time traffic image of SR 400 near Spalding Dr
• Near real-time traffic image of SR 400 south of Holcomb Br Rd

v · d · eMajor Roads in Metro Atlanta
Interstates and Freeways
	Interstate 75 | Northwest Expressway | Southeast Expressway		Downtown Connector		Interstate 20 | R.D. Abernathy Freeway | West Expressway | East Expressway
	Interstate 85 | Northeast Expressway | Southwest Expressway		The Perimeter		Stone Mountain Freeway
	Interstate 575		Georgia 400		University Parkway
	Interstate 675		Freedom Parkway		Buford Highway | Old 85
	Lanier Parkway		Langford Parkway		Ronald Reagan Parkway
	South Fulton Parkway		Peachtree Industrial Boulevard
Major Throughfares
	Peachtree Street | Peachtree Road | Peachtree Industrial Boulevard | Roswell Road		Ponce de Leon Avenue | North Avenue | D.L. Hollowell Parkway		Cobb Parkway | Northside Drive | Metropolitan Parkway | Tara Boulevard
	Memorial Drive		Piedmont Avenue | Piedmont Road		West Paces Ferry Road
	Buford Highway		Lawrenceville Highway		Sugarloaf Parkway
Unbuilt expressways
	Interstate 485		Outer Perimeter | Northern Arc		Interstate 420