Its routing is located within portions of Crisp, Dooly, Wilcox, Pulaski, Bleckley, Dodge, and Laurens counties.

[2][3][4] SR 257 begins at an interchange with Interstate 75 (I-75) in Cordele in Crisp County.

It enters Bleckley County and passes through rural areas until it has a brief concurrency with US 23/SR 87 in Empire.

It continues to the northeast, until it enters Chester, where it has a short concurrency with SR 126.

[2] I-175 and its unsigned State Route 412 were proposed in 1976 to travel east from the Liberty Expressway (US 19/US 82/SR 50) in Albany.

It would then curve to the northeast, and travel on a routing that would have been located farther to the east than SR 257.