A brief portion, from East Macon to Macon, is part of the Fall Line Freeway (and signed as SR 540) and may be incorporated into the proposed eastern extension of Interstate 14 (I-14), an Interstate Highway that currently exists completely within Central Texas and is proposed to be extended to Augusta.

It travels northwest through desolate farm and forestland as the Abbeville Highway until it approaches SR 230, then takes a sharp curve to the northeast.

A few residencies, including those along an unpaved side road can be found southwest of a culvert over Crooked Creek just west of the Piney Grove Church.

SR 87/SR 117 heads north where it crosses a bridge over Sugar Creek then approaches US 341, just as it enters the city limits of Eastman, where the street name changes to Griffin Avenue.

North of the Cochran area, in Royal, SR 112 leaves to the northeast across from Coley Station Road.

The road remains an undivided four-lane highway through the Twiggs County Line to the junction with GA 96 in Tarversville, then narrows down to two lanes for the next 24 miles.

In Smithsonia the routes are given the name Ocmulgee East Boulevard, and then becomes a four-lane divided highway for the first interchange with Interstate 16 west of old Camp Wheeler, only to narrow back down to an undivided two-lane highway as it runs through East Macon, where it runs along the western edge of the Macon Downtown Airport.

Briefly passing Fort Hawkins between Maynard and Fort Hill Streets, Georgia State Route 87 turns south onto U.S. Route 80 (Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard), passing between two hospitals, then the Macon Coliseum, before encountering an interchange with Interstate 16 again this time at Exit 2.

Immediately after this interchange US 80/SR 87 crosses the Otis Redding Memorial Bridge and then makes a right turn onto Riverside Drive, joining northbound U.S. Route 129/GA 11, where both the current and former bridge embankments for some Southern Railway lines cross over US 80/GA 11 south of the intersection and US 129/GA 11/87 west of the intersection.

Three blocks after this intersection, the road passes under the bridge for Georgia State Route 22 (Second Street), which only includes access from a south to east loop ramp.

The concurrency along Riverside Drive ends at Spring Street (GA 19/49) when US 129/SR 11 turns right and SR 87 rejoins US 23.

A park owned by Georgia Power called the "Dames Ferry Public Use Area at Lake Juliette" can also be spotted.

Later it passes by a manufacturing company specializing in erosion control products called ErosionTech,[5] which is a sure sign the road is about to run through the western edges of Juliette.

At the 4-way stop intersection with the road for which the community was named, which is also a blinker-light intersection, a local convenience store can be found on the northwest corner, and the southwest corner has a homemade sign leading to the "Whistle Stop Café," the site of the filming of the 1991 movie "Fried Green Tomatoes."

North of there, the road has few landmarks other than the Juliette Baptist Church, and the Elbert L. Jackson Memorial Bridge over the Towaliga River.

The road enters the Flovilla City Limits just south of the first intersection of Beaty Circle and Floyd Street.

US 23/SR 87 becomes a divided highway again before the intersection with Higgins Road, but instantly approaches an at-grade interchange with Georgia State Route 42.