ATLANTA – A resolution naming a bridge over a portion of the Port of Savannah in honor of former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., has cleared the General Assembly.
The Georgia Senate passed the resolution unanimously on Thursday, one month after the House approved it, also without opposition. It now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.
The bridge on Georgia 307 crosses over the Mason Mega Rail Yard, a $215 million project that, when completed, will give the port enough additional capacity to ship goods to cities in the nation’s Mid-South and Midwest regions.
While Isakson was instrumental throughout his congressional career in landing federal funding for the Mason Mega Rail Yard and other port projects, his influence spread much farther.
“Johnny Isakson worked greatly in helping people in Georgia,” Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, who carried the resolution in the Senate on behalf of House Speaker David Ralston, told his Senate colleagues before Friday’s vote.
“No matter who you are, no matter what side of the aisle you came from, no matter what side of the tracks you came from, Johnny Isakson was a man about the people, taking care of people, taking care of our state.”
Isakson, who hails from Cobb County, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1999 after serving for years in the General Assembly. He moved up to the Senate in 2004, serving two terms and part of a third before retiring at the end of 2019 for health reasons.
The House resolution honoring Isakson drew bipartisan sponsorship. House Majority Leader Jon Burns, R-Newington, joined Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, as a sponsor.
Members of the Chatham County legislative delegation from both parties signed on as cosponsors.
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