Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Vance Smith assured members of the Rome Rotary Club this week that the U.S. 411 Connector project will move forward offering substantial relief to the existing U.S. 411/I-75 connection.

Smith’s comments came on the heels of remarks made earlier in the week by Republican gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel and Jeff Anderson, founder of the Northern Arc Task Force. In ads published in several north Georgia newspapers, Anderson said the GDOT’s plans with the U.S. 411 Connector could be the start of an attempt to revive the Northern Arc.

The Northern Arc would have connected I-75 and I-85 parallel to Ga. 20. Neighborhood groups, like the Northern Arc Task Force, were instrumental in crushing plans for the project in 2002. Anderson said the task force is concerned now because the most recently proposed route for the Connector is nearly identical to the Northern Arc route defeated eight years ago.

“We are not against east-west connectivity,” Anderson said. “We desperately need it. But we have existing facilities that can be widened at much cheaper alternatives and much better values for taxpayers.”

Smith told a Rome Rotary Club audience Thursday that the 411 Connector is an individual project his department is eager to complete for the people of Rome. He rejected opposition claims that the Connector is a GDOT effort to keep the highly controversial Northern Arc project alive.