[UPDATE: 4:56 p.m., June 16: Following the earlier report this week about construction beginning Monday on the Southside Trail, BeltLine officials have released alternate detour routes for getting around the work and continuing on adjacent trails for the next two years. Those can be found below, in place of the Beltline’s first suggested detour route.
Jenny Odom, BeltLine spokesperson, notes in an email to Urbanize Atlanta: “We received feedback from folks about our suggested detour routes for the Southside Trail closure. I wanted to share them [and] note that these are suggestions and there are more possible routes. People should decide on a route that works best for their safety, comfort level, and mode of transportation.”]
The years of breaking a sweat and kicking up dust (literally) on the unbuilt BeltLine corridor between Glenwood Park and Atlanta’s southside are officially coming to an end.
Following a series of false start dates and delays, Atlanta BeltLine Inc. officials announced today the Southside Trail corridor between Glenwood Avenue and Boulevard will be closed to the public for construction beginning June 19.
That means, come Monday, the rugged off-road BeltLine experience many Atlantans have come to enjoy will be no more. At least east of Boulevard.
Reeves Young Construction, the contractor selected by the BeltLine to build Southside Trail Segments 4 and 5, is in the process of placing construction fencing, starting erosion control, and staging trailers along the 1.2-mile section.
A suggested detour route that will take BeltLine patrons past Maynard Jackson High School, through Grant Park near Zoo Atlanta, and back to Boulevard will be posted on signage at all current trail access points, per BeltLine officials.
REVISED DETOUR SUGGESTIONS, RANKED IN ORDER OF BIASED IN-HOUSE PREFERENCE :
Construction on the Southside Trail section in question is scheduled to finish sometime in spring 2025.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens led a groundbreaking ceremony on the Southside Trail in March, but construction was delayed by work to relocate fiber lines that took longer than expected, as BeltLine officials previously told Urbanize Atlanta.
Once Segments 4 and 5 open, BeltLine users will be able to travel from Piedmont Park down to Boulevard, south of Zoo Atlanta, on a contiguously paved and protected multi-use trail. The project will also serve to stitch back together Grant Park, Ormewood Park, and Boulevard Heights neighborhoods.
The project’s scope also includes rebuilding the United Avenue bridge—a gap in the corridor that’s hassled patrons, especially bicyclists, for three years.
The Southside Trail's interim status in Ormewood Park. Photo by Lo Knows Drones
On the flipside of downtown, meanwhile, construction to finish the full Westside Trail began in March. That 1.3-mile section (Segment 4) will fill the last gap between existing Westside Trail pieces and the connector trail that links into downtown, connecting neighborhoods from Capitol View to Blandtown with Atlanta’s commercial core.
That Westside BeltLine component is expected to open—with several new elevated structures and bridges—in summer 2025.
Those projects will join the Northeast Trail section currently under construction between Piedmont Park and the Lindbergh area. That 1.2-mile northeastern piece of the loop is expected to finish construction and open this fall, with finishing touches such as landscaping to continue into early 2024.
The Westside and Southside sections in question are now listed as "under construction" on the BeltLine's progress map. Atlanta BeltLine Inc.
Elsewhere, BeltLine officials indicated in April another piece of the 22-mile loop—the Northeast Trail’s Segment 1, branching off the popular Eastside Trail through Piedmont Park—is slated to begin construction soon, six months ahead of schedule.
Officials advise anyone with questions related to Southside Trail construction to contact BeltLine project manager Nancy Newell at nnewell@atlbeltline.org.
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