Georgia Transportation, Transportation Department
Georgia transportation has improved thanks to the Georgia Department of Transportation. The Georgia transportation department plans, constructs and maintains the roads, highways and bridges in Georgia, while providing financial support for other Georgia transportation systems, such as mass transit, airports and even bicycle trails. The Georgia transportation department has eight district offices located in downtown Atlanta, Cartersville, Chamblee, Gainesville, Jesup, Tennille, Thomaston and Tifton. The transportation department currently employs 5,700 workers and has a budget of $2.1 billion. They have been upgrading their network and have been making Georgia transportation a lot easier for travelers.
The transportation department in Georgia operates five major maintenance and construction programs. The Local Assistance road program helps local governments preserve their roads by resurfacing activities. Every city and county in the state is invited to submit a priority list of projects to the transportation department each year, the Georgia transportation department then reviews them and resurfaces the roads.
In 2007, 917 miles of roads were resurfaced under this program. Another is The Surface Transportation Program is a block grant program that is used for roads not classified as local or rural. Ten percent of these funds are set aside to address safety issues such as rail-highway crossings and another ten percent is saved to improve transportation systems. The Fast Forward program set goals to ease short term and long term congestion, through projects such as signal timing and vehicle lane expansion. The Georgia transportation department also has The Governor’s Road Improvement Program, which supports economic development highways that connect most of Georgia’s cities to interstate highways. This program will ensure that 98 percent of the state is within twenty miles of a 4 lane highway. Some of the transportation department GRIP projects are the Fall Line Freeway and the South Georgia Parkway. And the last transportation department program is the National Highway System which supports highways that link different modes of transportation including airports, public transportation and ports. The goal of this transportation department program is to enhance economic vitality.
The Georgia Transportation system also includes public transit, airports, railroads, and ports not directly operated by the Georgia Department of Transportation. In Georgia’s urban areas, the transportation department provides 14 transit systems. And it has 100 smaller transit systems in rural areas. The transportation department also has 473 airports, 105 of which are regularly used by commercial air carriers. Georgia also has more than 5,000 miles of railroad. The transportation department in Georgia, GDOT, owns nearly 540 miles of rail lines that are leased to commercial operators. And besides roads and railways, one of the busiest ports on the East Coast is in Savannah, which handles 80 percent of ship-borne cargo entering Georgia. The Georgia transportation department has also broadened its network with innovations such as the NaviGAtor, an “intelligent transportation system” developed to improve safety and reduce congestion on busy expressways. Georgia has definitely been moving forward with its transportation department network. These improvements have helped travelers and made Georgia transportation easier and safer for everyone.