$185 Million Is Slated for I-85 Interchange Conversions in Gwinnett

On November 4, 2026, at a Gwinnett Chamber event billed Moving Gwinnett Forward, Georgia DOT Commissioner Russell McMurry told the business audience that the amended fiscal year 2026 state budget includes $185 million for interchange conversions along the I-85 corridor. He also highlighted the planned connection between the I-85 express lanes and I-285 as the item most relevant to Gwinnett commuters.

The funding is corridor-wide rather than tied to a single named interchange, and the event was a program update rather than a project groundbreaking. Interchange conversion is the term for rebuilding an existing interchange to increase how much traffic it can move, rather than building a new one.

For Mulberry the geography is simple: the city sits on both sides of I-85 between the Hamilton Mill Road and Highway 211 interchanges, and the corridor's exits are the daily commute for most of the rooftops this site covers. The Mulberry brief carries the commute read, and the relocation guide audits the drive employer by employer.

For clarity: the express lanes between Old Peachtree Road and Hamilton Mill Road are existing infrastructure that opened in 2018. The new item is the interchange funding in the amended budget, which covers the corridor as a whole.

Budget line items are years from pavement, and a corridor-wide figure says nothing about which interchange is first. What is knowable today: the state is treating I-85 in Gwinnett as a congestion priority, and the corridor's exits are where the daily commute either works or does not.

For buyers and sellers the honest read is unchanged. Transportation funding supports the corridor's employment story, but the two numbers that matter for an address stay the commute ring and the school district.

As reported by the Gwinnett Chamber, November 4, 2026, covering Commissioner McMurry's update to the chamber. The $185 million figure and the express-lane connection are as stated in that report; the express lanes extension between Old Peachtree Road and Hamilton Mill Road opened in 2018 and is existing infrastructure.