Georgia's road network plays an important role in both domestic and international traffic with the four neighboring countries.

In 2011, the S13 was added as an S-trunk highway, promoted from an Sh-road, after the decision to open a new border crossing with Turkey.

The table below does not specify A-roads of local importance as data is generally not very consistent or complete to create a reliable picture.

Two S-routes run partially through Abkhazia (S1) and South Ossetia (S10) regions which sections are beyond control of Georgian authorities.

Most of the roughly 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) of S-roads are in a good or acceptable condition with an asphalt or concrete surface.

The vast network of 5,460 km (3,390 mi) domestic შ Sh-roads connects vital regions with each other and the capital.

The longer Sh-roads are interregional in nature while others are designed as part of a subregional network, provide access to the main S-highways or remote mountain valleys.

In more recent years other long and medium distance roads in the regions in partially or wholly terrible shape have been reconstructed, such as the Sh16 through Racha, the Sh26 to Shatili, the Sh38 across the Gombori mountains and others.

That has changed since construction of motorways commenced with the new government after the 2003 Rose Revolution for which the speed limit was raised to 110 km/h (68 mph).

This limit can mainly be found on a large part of the S1/E60 highway between Tbilisi and Samtredia, but also on the short motorway section of the S12.

These are for example: For decades the Soviet Union lacked a systematic public numbering system for its (trunk) road network.

In 1982 a three-tier classification system was adopted in the Soviet Union with M, A and R (Russian: Р) routes, which laid the foundation for the current Georgian numbered trunk road network.

The word "trunk road" (მაგისტრალური, magist'raluri, for M-road) was replaced with "international" and "republican" (რესპუბლიკური, resp'ublik'uri, R-road) with "domestic".

[16] In practice this meant that most of the (Soviet) Georgian A-routes and the only M-route were reclassified and renumbered as S-roads and former R-routes as Sh-roads.

The rationale behind this was that most of the M and A major roads that independent Georgia inherited from the Soviet Union in 1991 lead to the country's outer borders, in some cases with a short extension, such as the S2 and S8.