ATLANTA — A long-delayed highway designed to boost economic development is among the state’s priorities, Effingham County officials and business leaders learned Monday, along with improvements at an interchange normally clogged with commuters.
The Effingham Parkway will get $44 million and the state’s commitment to complete it, Rep. Jon Burns, R-Newington, told the crowd moments after posing for a photo with Gov. Nathan Deal. And the state will also widen and reconfigure the interchange of Interstate 95 and Ga. 21.
Burns, the House majority leader, said the Department of Transportation recognized the importance of the parkway.
“This is a project of significance, not just to Effingham County, but to the state as a whole,” he said.
Sen. Jack Hill, R-Reidsville, credited local efforts.
“One of the things that makes this project so doable is the work the county has already done,” said Hill, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
County Commission Chairman Wendell Kessler noted that the parkway had been on the drawing board for a dozen years. It bogged down due to its total cost and because a portion of it is in Chatham County. Chatham commissioners didn’t see it as a priority, leaving a gap that held up the entire project.
“The state told us two years ago, ‘If you can do this, this and this, we will help you bridge that gap.’ And they have done much more than that,” he said. “This becoming a state project will move things a lot quicker.”
The Effingham commission also shortened the route to save money from its original destination in Guyton.