Stone Mountain Freeway
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| Stone Mountain Freeway |
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| Direction: | West to East |
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| From: | U.S. 29/S.R. 8 (Lawrenceville Highway) northeast of Decatur |
| To: | Rockbridge Road near Stone Mountain Park |
| Major cities: | Decatur, Stone Mountain |
The Stone Mountain Freeway is a limited-access highway that connects Interstate 285 on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, with the suburbs of Stone Mountain and Snellville before transitioning into an arterial road that continues to Athens. The freeway is signed as U.S. 78 for its entire length, with about half also being State Route 410 in the west, and the eastern half being State Route 10. It begins at the U.S. 29/78 split near Decatur, Georgia, and continues east into Gwinnett County.
West of Interstate 285, the speed limit is 55 mph (90 km/h). East of the junction with I-285, the limit rises to 65 mph (100 km/h). Unlike Georgia's Interstate highways, the highway still has actual sequential exit numbers, rather than being mile-log.
Between I-285 in the west and Memorial Drive (S.R. 10) in the east, U.S. 78 is multiplexed with S.R. 410; but, upon reaching S.R. 10, S.R. 410 ends and S.R. 10 merges with the federal highway.
[edit] Routing controversy
As the designation State Route 10 suggests – the Stone Mountain Freeway shares that route number with Freedom Parkway, a two-mile road in northeast Atlanta that connects with the Interstate highway system at a major interchange on the Downtown Connector – state officials originally intended the Stone Mountain Freeway to continue west, through Decatur, Druid Hills and Candler Park, to downtown. In pursuit of those plans, in 1969 the state purchased an X-shaped swath of land designed to carry two roads: the Stone Mountain Freeway, running from east to west, and another freeway connecting State Route 400 in the north to Interstate 675 in the south.
Neighborhood groups and local preservationists worked together to block construction of the highways. After 20 years of litigation and political maneuvering, community groups and state and local officials in 1991 compromised and set much of the state-purchased right of way aside as parkland. The land proposed as the interchange of the two cancelled highways, by then, had become the site of the Carter Center.
Freedom Parkway – the last vestige of the planned downtown link of the Stone Mountain Freeway – opened in 1994.[1]
- See also: Interstate 485 (Georgia) and Interstate 675 (Georgia)
[edit] Exit list
The following exits are listed west to east and are numbered sequentially. Exit 6 was decommissioned; its old ramps are visible near Exit 7.
| County | # | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeKalb | Freeway and  end;  continues as Scott Boulevard |
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| 1 | North Druid Hills Road/Valley Brook Road - Decatur | Western terminus | |
| 2 |  Interstate 285 - Augusta, Macon/Greenville, SC, Chattanooga, TN |
unsigned  SR 407 |
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| 3 | Brockett Road/Cooledge Road - Clarkston | ||
| 4 | Mountain Industrial Boulevard - Tucker | ||
| 5 |  SR 10 West (Memorial Drive) - Stone Mountain Village |
SR 10 joins eastbound and leaves westbound | |
| ends; freeway continues as |
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| 7 |  State Route 236 North (Hugh Howell Road) - Tucker |
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| 8 | Stone Mountain Park Main Entrance (Jefferson Davis Drive) | ||
| Gwinnett | 9 | West Park Place Boulevard | Eastern terminus |
| Freeway ends; continue as Stone Mountain Highway |
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[edit] Notes
- ^ Hotchkiss, Judy, "Long-awaited roadway opening in late summer." Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 9, 1994, at E13.
