The American Transportation Research Institute today released its annual list highlighting the most congested bottlenecks for trucks in America, and the state of Georgia placed six locations on the list, including two in the top five.

"Congestion threatens our economy and our industry's ability to safely and efficiently move critical goods like medicine and food," said Georgia Motor Trucking Association President and CEO Ed Crowell. "Despite the pandemic, trucks continued moving and delivering their critical loads, but their jobs were made more difficult by these chokepoints. The fact that there were still significant bottlenecks in our highway system even though people drove less is proof we need significant infrastructure investment in order to make our roads and bridges safer and more efficient.  A focus on improving freight movement benefits everyone and helps secure our state's economic future. ATRI's work should be a guide in our efforts."

The 2021 Top Truck Bottleneck List measures the level of truck-involved congestion at over 300 locations on the national highway system. The analysis, based on truck GPS data from over 1 million freight trucks uses several customized software applications and analysis methods, along with terabytes of data from trucking operations to produce a congestion impact ranking for each location. ATRI's truck GPS data is also used to support the U.S. DOT's Freight Mobility Initiative. The bottleneck locations detailed in this latest ATRI list represent the top 100 congested locations, although ATRI continuously monitors more than 300 freight-critical locations.

The seven Georgia bottlenecks are:

• No. 3   Atlanta: I-285 at I-85 (North)

• No. 4   Atlanta: I-20 at I-285 (West)

• No. 16 Atlanta: I-75 at I-285 (North)

• No. 25 Atlanta: I-20 at I-285 (East)

• No. 31 McDonough: I-75

• No. 52 Atlanta: I-20 at I-75/I-85

• No. 68 Atlanta: I-75 at I-85

"For decades, ATA has been sounding the alarm about how the condition of our highways is contributing to congestion – which slows down commerce, contributes to pollution and reduces safety. ATRI's bottleneck report highlights where our most critical issues are and should be a guide for policymakers at the state and federal level," said American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear. "The cost of doing nothing is always higher than the cost of fixing these problems and we cannot wait any longer to address this mounting crisis."

For access to the full report, including detailed information on each of the 100 top congested locations, please visit ATRI's website at TruckingResearch.org.

ATRI is the trucking industry's 501(c)(3) not-for-profit research organization. It is engaged in critical research relating to freight transportation's essential role in maintaining a safe, secure and efficient transportation system.