Interstate 16 (I-16): Macon to Savannah Route, Length and Safety

How long is I-16?

FHWA's Route Log, as of January 2026, credits I-16 with 165.71 miles, all in Georgia. Wikipedia and Interstate Guide both give 166.81, about 1.1 miles more.

I-16 has no shared pavement booked to another Interstate, so the usual Route Log explanation does not apply here. Neither source says where the extra mile comes from. The road also carries the state number SR 404 along its whole length, though Georgia does not sign it.

Where I-16 starts and ends

I-16 begins at I-75, exit 165, northwest of downtown Macon, at an interchange shared with SR 540. It ends at Montgomery Street in downtown Savannah, exit 167B. In 2003 the stretch from I-95 into Savannah was named the Jim Gillis Historic Savannah Parkway, after longtime highway director James L. Gillis Sr.

In between it crosses 11 counties: Bibb, Twiggs, Bleckley, Laurens, Treutlen, Emanuel, Candler, Bulloch, Bryan, Effingham and Chatham. Dublin, Metter, Pooler and Bloomingdale sit along the way. Statesboro is a signed destination at exit 116 (US 25 and SR 73), but the Interstate does not go through the city. US 80, once a coast-to-coast highway, runs alongside much of the corridor. Drivers get just two rest areas, both near Dudley.

The Talmadge Memorial Bridge is not part of I-16. Wikipedia places it on the SR 404 Spur, which follows US 17 from exit 166.

Interstate junctions along I-16

I-16 meets two other main Interstates, one near each end. Heading east, it starts at I-75 in Macon and crosses I-95 at Pooler. No other Interstate crosses it in between. Closer to Savannah, the three-digit I-516 connects at exit 164 and is listed with the auxiliary routes below.

Fatal crashes on I-16

From 2020 to 2024, 56 fatal crashes on I-16 killed 61 people, roughly 12 deaths a year. Spread over 165.71 miles, that works out to 7.4 deaths per 100 route miles each year, compared with 9.5 for the Interstate network. I-16 ranks 30th of the 56 routes long enough to rank, where first means the highest rate. Because the route shares no mileage with another Interstate, the rate uses the full Route Log length.

Chatham County, at the Savannah end, had the most deaths with 11. Bulloch was close behind with 10, then Laurens with 8, Bibb with 6 and Candler with 5. Bulloch and Candler lie in the middle of the route, away from both end cities. Yearly deaths moved between 9 and 15 with no steady trend: 12 in 2020, 15 in 2021, 11 in 2022, 14 in 2023 and 9 in 2024, the lowest of the five years.

Counties with the most I-16 crash deaths

Bridges on I-16

The 2025 National Bridge Inventory counts 139 bridges carrying the I-16 main line. Of those, 102 rate Good and 37 Fair, and not one rates Poor. The median bridge dates to 1971, so half are at least 55 years old.

Georgia DOT's widening will replace or widen 12 bridges, WTOC reports, among them the crossings of the Ogeechee and Little Ogeechee rivers. In July 2021, a truck crash shifted the SR 86 overpass near exit 78. That bridge carries SR 86 over I-16 rather than the Interstate itself, and its replacement opened in late July 2022.

Tolls on I-16

FHWA's toll inventory dated January 1, 2023, lists no toll facilities on I-16, so a trip from Macon to Savannah costs nothing at any point. WTOC's report on Georgia DOT's widening contract does not mention tolls either.

I-16 auxiliary routes

I-16 has a single auxiliary route. I-516, the W.F. Lynes Parkway, runs through Savannah from I-16 at exit 164. The Route Log lists it at 6.68 miles; Wikipedia gives 6.49. Like its parent, it carries an unsigned state number, SR 421.

How I-16 was built and what is changing now

Work started in March 1963 on a 16.2-mile piece through Laurens and western Treutlen counties, and the first section near Dublin opened on October 11, 1966. Interstate Guide dates the first Savannah-area opening to November 24, 1967; Wikipedia gives 1968. The final 25.5 miles, through Emanuel, Candler and Bulloch counties, opened on September 22, 1978, and that finished the Macon to Savannah route. Georgia switched I-16 to mileage-based exit numbers in 2000.

Georgia DOT has been rebuilding I-16's two Interstate junctions, I-75 in Macon and I-95 at Pooler, since 2016. In Macon, reconstruction of the I-75 junction, first built in 1962, started in fall 2016. It moves left-hand ramps to the right side and adds collector-distributor roads, and Interstate Guide now lists completion in 2030. At Pooler, work began in 2019 and 2020 to turn the I-95 cloverleaf into a partial turbine interchange with flyover ramps. The new ramp from I-16 west to I-95 south opened on March 23, 2023, and the ramp from I-95 south to I-16 east followed on June 2. The same project widened I-16 to six lanes between I-95 and I-516.

The next project moves west. In July 2026, WTOC reported that Georgia DOT had awarded a $468.35 million design-build contract to the Matthews-McClendon joint venture and Infrastructure Consulting & Engineering, which the station called the largest design-build contract in state history. The 32-mile corridor from I-95 to SR 67 goes from two lanes to three in each direction. Phase one covers about 17.77 miles of it, from the I-95 interchange to mile marker 139.65 in Bryan County, with construction expected to begin in 2027.

At the Savannah end, the flyover ramps that carry I-16 into downtown cut across Berrien, West Jones and West Charlton streets. A study of removing them was funded in December 2023, and $1.8 million in federal planning money followed in March 2024. Interstate Guide describes two options, a boulevard or a new street, and either one needs approval from FHWA and Georgia DOT. By May 2026 the city and Georgia DOT had a plan to remove the ramp to Montgomery Street, voters had approved $4 million in SPLOST 8 money, and the city was buying land to reconnect Berrien Street.

I-16 is a hurricane evacuation route for Savannah. When an evacuation is ordered, Georgia can reverse the eastbound lanes for 125 miles, from Savannah to just west of US 441 in Dublin. Contraflow was first used for Hurricane Floyd in 1999, from Savannah to US 1 at exit 90, and again for Matthew in 2016 and Irma in 2017.

I-16 traffic and road conditions

Georgia's 511 service, linked below, covers every mile of I-16. Check it for wrecks and lane closures before you set out from Macon or Savannah.

I-16 questions