Officials Cut Ribbon on GA 17

Local and state leaders gather to celebrate the four-laning of Georgia Highway 17 through Stephens County.

While work continues to finish the final stretch of the highway, a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the opening of most of the new Georgia Highway 17 took place Tuesday along the new stretch of highway at the Hayestone-Brady Business Park.

50th District State Senator John Wilkinson said it is a historic event for Stephens County.

“I have lived in this community all my life and I am old enough to remember in the campaign for State Representative in 1964,” said Wilkinson. “If you go back and check it, one of the issues in that campaign was that they were going to get a four lane completed from Lavonia through Toccoa and Gainesville to Atlanta. There were some times I really wondered whether I was going to live long enough to see this, but 52 years later, we are all blessed to be here.”

The completion of this road will mark a continuous four-lane highway from Interstate 85 in Lavonia all the way through Stephens and Habersham counties that connects to Interstate 985.

Eventually, the road will be dubbed the “Currahee Parkway.”

28th District State Representative Dan Gasaway said he hopes the road can be an alternate way for motorists to drive to Atlanta.

“I was with a group in Hart County yesterday that was traveling back to the Atlanta area and I told them, ‘Why don’t you get off at Lavonia and take the new road to Atlanta?’,” said Gasaway. “One of them called me last night and said ‘That was such a beautiful drive. I am so glad you told me to do that versus riding through Jackson County on Interstate 85.’ The scenery as we all know is just amazing and they were not in a hurry to get home and they just enjoyed our scenery. I am hoping we can make that happen 100,000 more times.”

bell 17 ribbon cuttingStephens County Commission Chair Dennis Bell said that extra traffic should hopefully spur economic development.

“That is what this road is about,” said Bell. “It is going to help the economic industry in this area and all through the corridor we hope. It is a very, very beautiful corridor and there are steps we are going to have to take to make sure it stays this way.”

Toccoa Mayor Evan Hellenga agreed, saying this is hopefully the start of a bright future for the corridor.

“As automobile manufacturing is increasing in the Southeast, many supporting industries are locating in the I-85 corridor and I think we should benefit from that,” said Hellenga. “Manufacturers rely on safe, dependable, efficient roads to get their products to market.”

Work on the widening of Georgia Highway 17 from the Franklin-Stephens County line to Memorial Drive in Toccoa started in 2013 and planning started years before that.

All told, Georgia DOT District Engineer Brent Cook said the state has invested heavily in this road.

“Engineering costs for these two projects was roughly $9 million,” said Cook. “That is just to do the design work alone. We had to acquire approximately 200 parcels of right of way at a cost of almost $15 million. Combined the construction cost was about $63-$64 million. All told, you are pushing $80 million in investment.”

While much of the road is four lanes, work is still taking place.

The most work is yet to be done between Scott Road and Hayes-Wilbanks Road, where Highway 17 remains two lanes.

A final traffic shift is expected in the next few weeks, according to the DOT.