State might keep collecting tolls on Ga. 400, the Northside’s most expensive parking lot
New loot could reportedly pay for highway improvements, possible I-85/400 interchange
- SRTA
Northsiders and suburbanites might want to start looking for more quarters.
As first reported by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the State Road and Tollway Authority might not let Ga. 400’s toll expire as planned — and possibly increase the cost to $1 — to help pay for “improvements” along the notoriously congested road that connects the northern ‘burbs to Buckhead.
SRTA Executive Director Gena Evans has reportedly briefed local officials about possibly extending the 50-cent toll, which was set to expire next June since bonds floated to pay for the road have been repaid.
Buckhead Coalition President Sam Massell tells CL that he’d be willing to support the continued tolls on one condition. He’d like to see the Georgia Department of Transportation — which leases the highway to SRTA — use some of the new loot to finally build an interchange that would connect motorists from Ga. 400 to I-85 and vice versa. Such a project could help save motorists’ wasted hours and automobiles’ idle emissions.