Ernest W. Barrett Parkway

In 2003, the county commission extended the name of the parkway southward along other roads. This included the short Ridgeway Road (to which the parkway itself was extended) which originally ran only from Burnt Hickory Road in the north, about 1 mile (1.6 km) south to SR 120. Villa Rica Road, which was realigned westward at SR 120 to meet Ridgeway to complete the loop, also had its parkway-widened portion renamed. Where a new highway was built to replace Villa Rica Road, what became "Old Villa Rica Road" at the time was then returned to being just "Villa Rica Road" again. The very short Villa Rica Way at SR 120 still retains that name, but was the original northern terminus for Villa Rica Road before its realignment to meet Ridgeway.

As a result of these changes, the Barrett Parkway name now ends at the east–west Connector near Austell. Its northeastern end is at Bells Ferry Road, east of which it continues as Piedmont Road (not to be confused with SR 237, the Piedmont Road in Atlanta). That road curves down around to the south, meeting SR 120 again on the other side of Marietta; here SR 120 is called Roswell Road.

In November 2009, the long viaduct over the flood plain of Noses Creek and its tributary Ward Creek was named the William "Bill" G. Jordan Bridge, in honor of the civil engineer who designed it.[2] It is located south of Villa Rica Road and north of Macland Road (SR 360) at 33.9156°N 84.6282°W / 33.9156; -84.6282 (William "Bill" G. Jordan Bridge, Barrett Parkway at Noses Creek). Due to the environmental impact, this was the last and most expensive section to be built.

Despite being only a few years old, the newer section of Barrett Parkway is already slated to be widened. After a small minority of residents approved a sales tax increase in a little-known referendum in September 2005, one of the projects to be funded is making it a six-lane highway from US 41 to SR 120.[3] This would give it as many lanes as some much busier roads in the county, and would contradict promises made to residents before initial 1990s construction. It would also bring the highway right up to the backs of many homes. The project was expected at the time to cost nearly 50 million tax dollars, including 38 million from the special local option sales tax, which also taxes basic necessities like groceries.

Previously, the only other east–west route across the Town Center area was Chastain Road, one exit to the north on both I-75 and I-575, which travel parallel to each other between the Barrett and Chastain exits. Both of these are choked with traffic, particularly due to the mall (which can take nearly an hour to travel across during Christmas shopping weekends), and due to the rapid expansion of Kennesaw State University (KSU, which now covers several location distant from the main campus). Because of this, two new parallel routes were planned.

As of 2012, the South Barrett Reliever is partly completed, extending the four-lane divided Barrett Lakes Boulevard southwestward down formerly two-lane Greers Chapel Road to Cobb Parkway (where it continues as Ridenour Road, renamed from its historic name for a new development of expensive homes adjacent to it). This portion was completed by 2011. According to medium-range plans, the original Roberts Road behind (south of) Costco will later be widened in the same manner, and eventually reconnected with itself across I-75 south of The Home Depot on the other side. In longer-range plans, a new roadway will be constructed from this point eastward to Bells Ferry Road, including a second bridge across I-575. This would take the road through untouched forest and next to a neighborhood around Laura Lake, which feeds Noonday Creek.

The North Barrett Reliever consisted of reconnecting the severed portions of Big Shanty Road, which from I-75's construction in the early 1970s until July 2012 traveled only from Bells Ferry Road west under I-575 to Busbee Parkway. Instead of terminating before I-75 as it did, it now continues west across a former go-kart track to the other side, crossing Barrett Lakes Boulevard and a bridge over an unnamed tributary of Noonday Creek, to meet the southern tip of a loop road south of Chastain Road. To carry traffic around the KSU area, the western half of that road was also widened to four-lane divided with turn lanes like the rest of Big Shanty Road (west of Chastain Meadows Parkway), and the name was changed to match as well, again making for a single continuous Big Shanty Road to all the way north of Chastain, and leaving the eastern half of the loop as a three-lane side street.

To complete this, traffic on I-75 was detoured in 2011 onto temporary roadways in the very wide median where trees used to be, and much of the dirt removed to construct new bridges, a project done by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT). Completed and opened in early June 2012, the detour roads and the rest of the dirt below them and the bridges was removed during the remainder of the month, and the already-completed portions of the road on either side were quickly connected under the bridges for the July opening. This new alternate route connects KSU with its new soccer stadium, and would also be a bus rapid transit station and an interchange with the reversible express lanes on the proposed Northwest Corridor HOV/BRT.

There is also a further "wish list" that includes ramps from I-575 southbound to I-75 northbound, and vice versa, so that traffic will not have to use Chastain or Barrett to do so. However, this is unlikely to affect traffic, as very few cars do this, and the few motorists that do would be unlikely to make a backtrack of 5 miles (8.0 km) extra just to use the ramps. The ramps would also likely be expensive due to the large amount of rock in the area, as is seen on both freeways where they cross the ridge immediately north of where they split.

The road was exit 116 and is now mile 269 on I-75. It was exit 1 and is still mile 1 on I-575, which originally had no northbound exit to or southbound entrance from Barrett Parkway. Those ramps were not built until the late 1980s or early 1990s, a few years after the mall opened. In August 2007, new ramp meters have been installed by GDOT on both the northbound and southbound entrance ramps, and were activated along with the others on I-575 in 2008, as part of the Georgia Navigator intelligent transportation system.

Cobb DOT also operates a traffic camera at this interchange, at Mall Boulevard to its immediate west, at the southwest corner of the I-75 northbound intersection, and at Barrett Lakes Boulevard. Adverse conditions observed on these cameras are displayed on small variable message signs to drivers coming from the northwest on US 41, or from the southwest on Barrett Parkway, just before Old 41 (which becomes Main Street in Kennesaw and Kennesaw Avenue in Marietta). These are the last intersections before US 41 and Barrett meet, allowing drivers to take an alternate route if necessary.

To the east, another camera is located at Piedmont Road and Canton Road, however there are no message signs in this direction. Elsewhere along the road, in either direction, there are no cameras or message signs at all.[4]

•  U.S. Roads portal
•  Georgia (U.S. state) portal