the road starts curving more toward the north and somewhere off to the east is the beginning of georgia state route 31 connector. north of there, it enters the lakeland city limits just south of burnt church road, becoming south valdosta road. after passing the city department of public works garage it is joined by a concurrency with georgia state route 135. south valdosta road comes to an end, but us 221/srs 31/135 turn right at a wrong-way concurrency with u.s. route 129, which also has concurrencies with srs 11/37/122. georgia state route 135's wrong way concurrency with us 129 ends as soon as it begins, because it is positioned at a pair of t-intersections set close to one another that requires a slight shift to the right for all traffic on north carter street. at oak street, another concurrency joins us 221, specifically sr 135 bypass then two blocks later turns north onto north college street, which is also the southern terminus of sr 11 bypass. us 129/221/srs 11/31/37/122 leaves the city limits at the bridge over "big creek" which is a tributary of the alapaha river. these routes cross that river itself using the captain henry will jones bridge. a former section of the route can be found curving off to the northwest at the intersection with a dirt road named "old river road," and us 221/srs 31/122 turns north just before us 129/sr 11's concurrency with sr 37 ends, almost in the same manner. shortly after this, sr 122 breaks away from the multiplex, branching off to the east. the last intersection in lanier county is a blinker-light intersection with georgia state route 168. immediately after this the road cuts through a corner of clinch county surrounded by forestland and only intersecting local dirt roads until it enters atkinson county and encounters the southern terminus of a concurrency with georgia state route 64