Atlanta Beltline to Silver Comet Trail connection is barreling ahead

The effort to link downtown Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park to Cobb County’s Silver Comet Trail—by way of now-finished Beltline sections—is clearly making progress this autumn.

As our pals at grassroots Connect the Comet relay, construction on the multi-segment Silver Comet Connector (or SCC) project has recently started on a ramp section at Collier Road in Bolton.

That short but important piece will connect the final two missing intown links in the SCC, called Segments 2 and 3.

Clearance work on those two segments wrapped up last month, according to Connect the Comet observers. When finished, they’ll stretch between mixed-use warehouse district The Works on Chattahoochee Avenue up to Marietta Boulevard.

PATH Foundation officials haven’t responded this week to requests for SCC construction updates.

Construction this week on the Silver Comet Connector near Collier Road. Submitted photo, courtesy of Connect the Comet/Philip Clinch/@philip_atlanta

The first new segment of SCC in Atlanta opened earlier this year. That’s the .7-mile Woodall Rail Trail, which branches off the Beltline’s Westside Trail, wends through some woods, and ends at The Works.

The multi-use SCC will extend from Atlanta’s postindustrial Upper Westside district toward Cobb County and the 61.5-mile Silver Comet’s Georgia component—and off to Alabama towns beyond that.

In doing so, according to project leaders, the SCC will help weave together growing ITP neighborhoods such as Blandtown, Bolton, and Underwood Hills.

Where the Silver Comet Connector (SCC) Segment 3 will branch away from a new trail near The Works (at right) opened this year. Submitted photo, courtesy of Philip Clinch/@philip_atlanta

How the Silver Comet Connector (SCC) Segment 2 will bring the pathway to a new section of the connector along the BRYKS Upper Westside apartments (at left). Submitted photo, courtesy of Philip Clinch/@philip_atlanta

Another short SCC trail section at the doorstep of the finished, nearly 600-apartment BRYKS Upper Westside development is also now open.

Just northwest of new SCC construction, a finished rails-to-trails section that will be incorporated into the connector is called the Whetstone Creek Trail. That stretches for just shy of two miles, linking Marietta Road to Bolton Road, with a spur to Adams Street near Bolton Academy, according to PATH.

Confused? Below are helpful visual overviews with more context:

Intown sections of the Silver Comet Connector trail as shown earlier this year. Courtesy of PATH Foundation/Upper Westside CID

This PATH regional map—several years old, with a few completed trail sections not shown—lends an idea of scope for linking the Beltline to the Silver Comet. Sections of connector trail near the Chattahoochee River remain under construction as well. PATH Foundation