Gwinnett County plans to use tolls to pay for at least part of the cost of an 8.3-mile extension to Sugarloaf Parkway, and this may not be the last time drivers in Georgia pay for new or expanded roads as they use them.
It certainly isn’t the first. The Georgia 400 extension inside I-285 was paid for by tolls, and some lanes along other interstates feeding into Atlanta have variable tolls. Tolls have received a mixed reception from drivers in the past. Drivers don’t seem to mind, at least not as much, when the toll pays for new roads or at least new capacity.
But when existing lanes are turned into toll lanes, as with lanes along much of I-85 in Gwinnett County, those tolls anger more drivers. Gwinnett drivers even gave the lanes a nickname, ”Lexus lanes.” In general, the Georgia Department of Transportation despises that name.
For the Sugarloaf extension, the county expects to have up to $105 million in federal money if the county receives the grant it is applying for. That would leave almost $180 million, plus any cost overruns, for local funding. Some of that will come from the state, and maybe some of it will come from Gwinnett taxpayers. The rest will come in the form of tolls.
At least some of the right-of-way for the extension already belongs to the state and could be transferred to Gwinnett at no cost. Gwinnett County spokesman Joe Sorenson referred most questions on the project to the Gwinnett DOT, but he did say it is unlikely the county will build additional limited-access highways in the near future. The expanded highway will connect Georgia 316 at Dacula to I-85 near Buford.
Sorenson said the tolling will be electronic and not by a toll booth and that the toll will sunset when the road is paid for.
