The road called "I-3" has not been designated as an interstate but is proposed as one that would extend from Savannah to Augusta to Knoxville, Tennessee.
U.S. Representative Charlie Norwood got Congress to earmark 1.3 million dollars for a study on building the highway before his death. Groups who feared the highway would harm north Georgia's trees and landscape protested.
During his election campaign, Representative Paul Broun (Brown), the Republican who succeeded Norwood, wrote an e-mail assuring the conservation group Trout Unlimited that he opposed the road. The group's leader, Doug Adams, says Broun instead proposed work on Georgia 17.
But Broun now says he has learned how important the highway could be to Augusta and Savannah and says he's trying to get the route to avoid the Georgia mountains.
Adams says the new route wouldn't affect fisheries in north Georgia, so his group had no opinion on it.
But the director of the Stop I-3 Coalition, Holly Demuth, says the group is opposed to the highway even if it does skirt the mountains. She says any road could spur development that could affect the region.
Paul Broun
http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/1/205506