History
The last part of the highway opened up on September 22, 1978, running it through Emanuel County, Candler County, and Bulloch County completing the connection between downtown Macon and Savannah.
Until 2000, the state of Georgia used the sequential interchange numbering system on all of its Interstate Highways. The first exit on each highway would begin with the number "1" and increase numerically with each exit. In 2000, the Georgia Department of Transportation switched to a mileage-based exit system, in which the exit number corresponded to the nearest milepost.
In 2001 the Georgia Legislature passed a resolution, to designate the Earl T. Shinhoster Interchange at the junction with Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Savannah in honor of Earl Shinhoster, who was a Black civil rights activist. This interchange is located in the economic and cultural center for Black Savannah.
In 2003 the Georgia Legislature passed a resolution to designate Interstate 16 in honor of James L. Gillis, Sr., a Democrat who served as a State Representative, State Senator and Director of the Georgia Department of Transportation, as the Jim Gillis Historic Savannah Parkway. Gillis' sons, Hugh and James, Jr., also served as Democratic State legislators. Hugh was a Representative from 1941 to 1953 and a State Senator from 1953 to 1955 and from 1963 to 2005. James, Jr. was a State Senator from 1945 to 1946.
Read more about this topic: Interstate 16
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