Long-sought Atlanta Beltline connection at Ponce is almost real

Following two years of construction, an infrastructure project designed to immediately improve connectivity to the Atlanta Beltline, jobs, and eastside retail is weeks away from opening, according to Beltline officials. 

A pedestrian connection at Ponce de Leon Avenue near Midtown Place shopping center has been part of the Eastside Trail's plan since before it debuted in 2012. Years, that is, before Ponce City Market even started opening. 

This week, Atlanta Beltline Inc. reports the key link is on pace to finish construction and open sometime this summer, which ends Sept. 22, though plenty of work remains. It will cap work on a broader .7-mile Ponce streetscape project that’s helped make the busy thoroughfare safer and more approachable for pedestrians, bicyclists, and micromobility users.  

The Beltline’s contractor, JHC Construction, is currently finishing railing work on the ramp between Ponce and the Eastside Trail, where columns have been poured and elevated structures are in place. Granite veneering and wall construction for the project has wrapped, as Beltline officials relayed in a recent construction update.   

The project aims to create a more seamless, quicker, and ADA-accessible means of exiting the Beltline for Ponce’s shopping and eating options, and vice versa. 

Included are a steel ramp, stairs, and railings at the northwestern corner of the Ponce-Beltline bridge, similar to Edgewood Avenue’s metal-ramp connection to the Eastside Trail where Old Fourth Ward meets Inman Park. The surface, however, is concrete instead of serrated metal, in order to spare dogs’ feet. (You live, you learn.) 

Previous plans to begin work on the Ponce-Beltline connection in summer 2021 were delayed. Construction kicked off in earnest in summer 2023. 

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