The Georgia Transportation Alliance wants you to know that business is booming in the Peach State, home to 16 Fortune 500 companies, the world’s busiest airport, the nation’s fastest-growing seaport and the ninth-largest transit system in the country.
The alliance, an affiliate of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, also wants you to note the theme running through the above-mentioned accolades — transportation.
To that end, the organization has released its first annual Georgia Transportation Handbook, detailing the impact of ports, railroads, highways and bridges, airports and public transportation on Georgia’s economic competitiveness as a state.
“Many times, decision makers tend to see transportation, or one aspect of transportation, in a very narrow fashion. This restricts our ability to make the best decisions about investment in our infrastructure,” said alliance chairman Michael Sullivan.
“We hope that this handbook will help the decision making process by showing the breadth of our state’s transportation resources in one place — as well as some ideas for the future.”
The 26-page handbook contains hundreds of data points designed to illustrate the role transportation plays in Georgia’s economic health. For example, Georgia has:
• 1,244 miles of interstate highway
• 121,632 miles of public road
• 14,739 bridges
• 720 miles of inland waterways
• 2 Class-1 railroads — CSX and Norfolk Southern — and 23 freight railroads covering 4,679 miles of track and
• The ninth largest transit system in the U.S.
But the state is not without its challenges. Georgia’s major urban centers are expected to see a 25 percent increase in congestion by 2020, and the state’s population will grow by 4 million people by 2040.
The mission of the Georgia Transportation Alliance, according to the handbook, is to build upon the state’s strong history of transportation excellence by supporting efforts to improve transportation funding and thus improve the state’s transportation infrastructure.
“The involvement of the business community in the discussion about our transportation future will continue to be important to our ability to remain a global logistics hub and the transportation capital of the Southeast,” said Chris Clark, CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
“Our goal is to ensure that leaders understand the relationship between infrastructure investment and Georgia’s ability to expand businesses and create jobs.”
ON THE WEB
The Georgia Transportation Handbook is available at www.gatransportation.org.