A portion of the Atlanta Beltline’s Southside Trail will close Monday for construction work, project officials announced.
The affected stretch of the trail runs along the edge of Atlanta’s Ormewood Park neighborhood, between Boulevard and Glenwood Avenue SE. The trail section is expected to reopen in the spring of 2025.
West of Boulevard, the trail will remain open between Grant Park and Pittsburgh Yards until construction begins on that portion of the trail in early 2024.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and other city leaders held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Southside Trail on March 13. However, problems with a planned fiber relocation delayed the project’s start, as four Verizon lines had to be transferred before construction could begin. The fiber work was canceled twice due to emergencies, Jenny Odom, a spokesperson for Atlanta Beltline, Inc., told the AJC.
Odom said that the anticipated completion date of the project was not affected.
The Beltline is a popular walking and biking trail that will eventually complete a loop around Atlanta’s intown neighborhoods. Construction began in 2008 and is expected to be completed by 2030. Once it’s finished, the trail will span 33 miles, 22 of which follow the path of a former Atlanta railroad line.
The City of Atlanta and ABI acquired the railroad corridor for the Southside Trail in 2018. The trail section, which stretches four miles, completes the loop between the Beltline’s Eastside and Westside trails. Though still unpaved, it has been open to the public since August 2019.
The trail segment immediately west of Pittsburgh Yards was completed in 2021; construction on the final segment of the Westside Trail is ongoing.
Credit: Courtesy Atlanta Beltline, Inc.
Credit: Courtesy Atlanta Beltline, Inc.
In 2021, the Atlanta Regional Commission and RAISE awarded grants to fund construction on the Southside Trail, contributing $20.46 million in total. The planned improvements include the addition of a 14-foot wide concrete path and installing lighting, trail signage, vertical connections between adjoining streets, retaining walls and storm drainage.
The project also calls for new pedestrian bridges over United Avenue and Ormewood Avenue, Odom said. In 2020, the city demolished a bridge over United Avenue due to safety concerns. Ormewood Avenue’s bridge is still standing and Odom said it “will remain in place for future transit use” with the addition of a separate pedestrian bridge.
Additionally, Odom said the construction will create wheelchair-accessible public access points to United Avenue, Delmar Avenue SE, Ormewood Avenue and Mercer Street NE.
Trail users who need a new path between Boulevard and Glenwood can view suggested detour routes on the Beltline’s website.
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