Burns, Bipartisan House-Senate Coalition Unveil Legislation for New Deep South Interstate Highways Interstate 3 to Link Savannah-Knoxville...

Burns, Bipartisan House-Senate Coalition Unveil Legislation for New Deep South Interstate Highways Interstate 3 to Link Savannah-Knoxville; Interstate 14 Ties Augusta-Natchez

Washington, DC -U.S. Representative Max Burns (R-GA), David Scott (D-GA), Charlie Norwood (R-GA), Sanford Bishop (D-GA), Jack Kingston (R-GA), Jim Marshall (D-GA), John Duncan (R-TN), Jo Bonner (R-AL), Mike Rogers (R-AL), Chip Pickering (R-MS), and Gresham Barrett (R-SC) introduced legislation late last night in the U.S. House of Representatives calling for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to begin steps for development of two new Deep South Interstate Highways. Companion legislation, S. S.2735 (1-14) and S.2736 (1-3) was introduced in the Senate by U.S. Senators Zell Miller (D-GA) and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA).

The dual legislation authored by Burns calls for a new Interstate linking Savannah, Augusta, Northeast Georgia, Western North Carolina, and Knoxville, with a targeted designation of U.S. Interstate 3, and an honorary name of the "3rd Infantry Division Highway", in honor of Fort Stewart's 3rd Infantry Division's lead role in the War on Terror in Iraq.

A second new interstate would tie Augusta, Macon, Columbus, Montgomery, and Natchez, Mississippi in a line that would open the historic Southern "Black Belt" to economic development. The new highway is targeted for a designation of Interstate 14, and an honorary name of the "14th Amendment Highway", in recognition of the need for a Black Belt Regional Commission full economic development as proposed by U.S. Senator Zell Miller (D-GA) and Artur Davis (D-AL).

Text of Burns Remarks

I'm a freshman from a very large and rural district. When I was elected one of the prime concerns expressed to me was that the lack of transportation infrastructure for our district was impeding progress and economic growth, and that our district was receiving far less of its fair share of federal highway funds.

While the folks in East Georgia watched the rest of the nation - including even our own Greater Atlanta area - rake in federal highway investments in state-of-the-art freeway systems, our district kept the same road systems we had in the 1950s - and to a great extent, the same economy.

When I got to Washington, I discovered an amazing fact. I was not alone. Regardless of party, across the South I found other members with districts facing the same economic challenge from lack of highway infrastructure.

The need must be met by new Interstate Highways, not the four-lane monstrosities that were pushed as "pseudo interstates" in the past for rural areas.

I've spent a great part of my two years in Washington fighting for conversion of four-lane Highway 316 from Atlanta to Athens into a limited access highway, after the traffic and safety problems of this half-effort became evident as a failure.

We don't need to have this same fight again in the future, when we discover the same problems over the half-efforts we are pushing with the current Fall Line Freeway and Savannah River Parkway four-laning projects.

The people of Atlanta would not have settled for four-laning Peachtree Road in lieu of I-85; the people of Augusta, Waynesboro, Statesboro and Macon shouldn't settle for the four-laning of Highway 25 or Highway 80 either.

The two highway proposals we unveil today are just the start of these projects that will take years to complete. I know that specific plans and routes will change as we engage all the stakeholders in these projects. We need to be flexible and encourage that input - it will make the projects better.

But there is one point on which we must stand. When all is said and done, we're going to have two, true, full interstate highways linking these targeted regions of the South that have been left out of interstate highway development in the past, while the taxpayers from these same regions paid for the finest freeway systems in the world for others.

This plan targets two specific regions. First, the 11-State region in the Southeast that has been known historically as the Southern Black Belt. Senator Miller and Rep. Davis have spoken well on the historic challenges facing this region in the past, and I will defer to their eloquence and knowledge in providing background for this area. We should continue their efforts to establish a Black Belt Regional Commission to address all the economic and social disparities we know face this area of our country. But we can start today with concrete action by opening this entire section of the Deep South to world-class federal highway access today - and that is what we are doing with this bill.

Our needs in the Savannah River Valley, Western North Carolina, and the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee are similar - but with a distinct added national security need. Not only will this effort provide north-south interstate access to a section of the South that currently has none, it will reach back to the original purpose of our entire Interstate system, by linking the substantial military facilities in Augusta with those in Savannah, and with the Port of Savannah.

With that, I would like to introduce my friend and colleague Charlie Norwood, to tell us more of what these projects can do for overall economic development in our state, and across the south.