FLOYD COUNTY would have really made out wonderfully had its voters, and those of the region, supported the TSPLOST (added 10-year sales-tax penny for roads). The three regions that did approve the tax are already reaping almost a million dollars a month apiece to put into new paving and bridges.

Left at the state’s limited-means mercies after voting the tax down, Floyd County instead learns that right-of-way acquisition is under way for the Ga. 140 four-laning (one of the TSPLOST projects) and maybe dirt will be moving by 2015. That likely means the short stretch leading to I-75 in Adairsville will be drivable by around 2017 even though, by later this year, an expected 200 additional trucks per day are expected to try to get to the new Lowe’s Distribution Center at the Ga. 140-Ga. 53 corner. The existing 140 two-lane is already dominated by 18-wheelers.

Additionally, it has been announced that soil borings will begin soon along Ga. 101 (the Rockmart highway of death) some 20 years or so after four-laning the route was authorized. That was on the guaranteed TSPLOST project list as well.

Georgia highway planners, at least as regards the long-obvious needs of Northwest Georgia, have been giving a new meaning to “snail’s pace.” At this rate of progress, the right-of-way acquisition for a new 101 will start about 2033, the moving of utility lines by 2053, and construction around 2073. By which time it is not impossible that the route would no longer be necessary as teleportation will have been invented.