The highway starts heading west but curves around to the northeast along a section of freeway adjacent to I-85.

The ramps provide a savings of 3⁄4 mile (1.2 km) by allowing vehicles to avoid the southernmost section of the connector.

[5] In the Atlanta metropolitan area, Buford Highway is a linear community made up of multiracial suburban neighborhoods and shopping centers.

The more than 1,000 immigrant-owned businesses are owned by, and patronized by, a wide variety of ethnic groups,[6][7] notably Korean, Mexican, Chinese, and Vietnamese, and also Indian/South Asian, Central American, Somalis, and Ethiopian.

"[8] The Buford Highway community is home to one of the highest concentration of foreign-born residents in the country, notably Mexican, Central American, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese.

The area attracted many Latino workers during the construction boom that preceded the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Asian business owners were attracted to the stretch of highway by cheap leases and reliable traffic flow.

Northeast of Atlanta, Buford Highway is an international community spanning multiple counties including Fulton, Dekalb, and Gwinnett.

[10] SR 13 was established at least as early as 1919 from Lawrenceville north-northwest to Buford, northeast to Gainesville and Cornelia, and east-northeast to Toccoa.

[27][28] Between November 1946 and February 1948, US 123 was designated on SR 13 from Cornelia to the South Carolina state line.

US 23/SR 13/SR 365, between Lula and northwest of Cornelia, was shifted westward, onto the previously proposed path of SR 365.

[47][48] In 1997, the northern terminus was further truncated to its current point, with SR 369 extended along the former path in Gainesville.

The towns of Doraville, Chamblee, and Norcross had long been home to a blue collar, largely white, lower middle-class population.

In the 1980s, immigrants settled in the area due to affordable housing, available public transportation, and proximity to construction jobs in growing Gwinnett County.

[51] The area attracted many Latino workers during the construction boom that preceded the 1996 Olympic Games.

Asian business owners were attracted to the stretch of highway by cheap leases and reliable traffic flow.

During the 1996 Olympics, Chamblee embraced the growing international character of Buford Highway, while more conservative Doraville resisted it.

[52] The program noted that in the previous ten years, 30 people had died and an additional 250 were injured while trying to cross Buford Highway, a rate three times higher than any other road in Georgia.

In 2017, the Interstate 85 bridge collapse temporarily closed the connector at Piedmont Road (SR 237) on the evening of March 30 as High-density polyethylene conduit rolls stored under the newer viaduct burned, spewing black smoke and intense fire toward the southbound lanes.

Since the connector is lower than the viaduct and only has a short bridge over the road itself, it was not damaged and was used by the Atlanta Fire Department to fight the massive blaze.

Buford Highway is served by MARTA bus route 39 (Lindbergh Center station to Doraville) as well as privately run "jitneys",[53] or minibuses.

[54] Since 1992, the Doraville MARTA metro rail station is also a block away from Buford Highway at the end of the Gold Line.

The entire route travels along Motors Industrial Way, a four-lane divided highway with a grassy median.

It curves to the east-southeast, with a southeastern bend, until it reaches its northern terminus, another intersection with US 23/SR 13 just southwest of Rest Haven.

It curved to the east-southeast, with a southeastern bend, until it reached its northern terminus, another intersection with US 23/SR 13 just southwest of Rest Haven.

SR 13 Conn. and the railroad tracks curved to the northeast, skirting past the Gainesville Municipal Airport.