James July-August 2025 web - Flipbook - Page 51
eorgia’s logistics industry has become one
of the nation’s leaders
over the past two decades. With the
world’s busiest airport, the third-largest and fastest-growing seaport in
the country, a top-ranked highway
system and more rail miles than any
state in the Southeast, few places
bring as many pieces as possible
together to form a cohesive logistics
powerhouse like Georgia. More than
32,000 organizations directly employ
more than 250,000 people in direct
logistics jobs. It is so many that it
is difficult to estimate the indirect
impact. The state handles approximately $1 trillion in cargo every
year and is home to some of the
world’s largest logistics companies,
such as Delta, Norfolk Southern and
UPS— not to mention major hubs for
companies like Amazon.
Infrastructure Never Stops
Sitting roughly atop this sprawling infrastructure network is Georgia Department of Transportation
(GDOT) Commissioner Russell McMurry. He is the point man for some
4,000 employees and a budget of
more than $3.5 billion. Appointed in
2015, McMurry has been with GDOT
for 35 years. There is no one across
the state who knows the history and
development of Georgia transportation better, so it is convenient that he
is commissioner.
One thing that occurs to you
when talking with McMurry or
digging into transportation issues is
that if there is a complaint you have
about traffic— particularly interstate traffic or state routes, such as
Georgia 400— it is a sure bet that
McMurry and GDOT have already
been planning something for years.
Project completion at GDOT takes
many years from start to finish. It’s
not just the construction but also
the need to keep things flowing freely during construction. Oftentimes
that means they need to basically
build another road to then go in and
fix or update or expand the existing
road. For anyone that has driven
through Macon in the last few years,
you know what that means. But that
project is nearing an end.
“We are still making significant
progress in Macon with I-75 and I-16,
where the two freight arteries of the
state come together. We have been
working on that project for a long
time because it’s a large, complicated project that includes six phases,”
said McMurry. “Because the project
is so big, you could not do it in one
fell swoop. We had to stage the work
over multiple years. We still have one
more phase to go and we’re about to
receive bids on that in July and get
the last phase of that project done so
that people traversing the state will
have a nice new completed interchange in a few more years.”
In another part of the state,
McMurry is focused on addressing
freight bottlenecks. The state is
home to nine of the top 100 freight
bottlenecks in the nation but, in
GDOT’s defense, if we were not
moving unbelievable amounts of
freight, those bottlenecks would not
exist. Freight bottlenecks are more
infrequent in Idaho (nothing against
beautiful Idaho).
Two Freight Interchanges
The two biggest freight interchanges going under construction now are both along I-20 in
Atlanta. One is the I-285 and
I-20 East project in DeKalb
County which is a major reconstruction of that interchange, including improvements along I-20 for
three or four miles or
so, with a ballpark
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