Images: Beltline section with suspension bridge set to break ground

The future of federal infrastructure spending in urban places may have been thrust into murky waters overnight, but there’s good news afoot on a local level in the short term: More Atlanta Beltline is coming.

By all indications, the next section to move forward will include a truly standout feature—a suspension bridge high over Peachtree Creek—for the 22-mile mainline loop.

Beltline president and CEO Clyde Higgs and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens have scheduled a press conference Thursday morning at Beltline headquarters to detail progress being made to wend the multi-use trail through Buckhead and connect with other parts of town.

Specifically, the event will celebrate the official groundbreaking of the Northwest Trail’s Segment 1. Project officials will also announce a “key land acquisition” regarding a parcel on that trail’s Segment 2, but exactly what and where that is hasn’t been specified.

Segment 1 will mark the Beltline’s first new trail in the part of Buckhead between Peachtree Road and the Lindbergh area.

The Northwest Trail includes five segments overall, which will link with completed sections near Tanyard Creek Park and Bobby Jones Golf Course.

The full scope of the Northwest Trail, linking the Westside to the Lindbergh area. Segment 5 (at left) is currently under construction. Atlanta Beltline Inc.

Segment 1 will run for .8 miles total. It will begin at the western edge of the low-rise Peachtree Park Apartments and wend south along Peachtree Creek, with the suspension bridge situated basically next door to the apartments.

Then it will travel on an elevated structure along Peachtree Creek that’s meant to protect residential privacy and preserve greenspace, per Beltline officials.

A contract was previously finalized with Reeves Young construction company to build Segment 1.

Planned look of a suspension bridge over Peachtree Creek as part of Northwest Trail Segment 1. PATH Foundation/Atlanta Beltline Inc.

How Segment 1 will travel on an elevated structure along Peachtree Creek. PATH Foundation/Atlanta Beltline Inc.

Segment 1 at Kinsey Court, looking south, in Buckhead's Peachtree Hills neighborhood. PATH Foundation/Atlanta Beltline Inc.

Meanwhile, Segment 2 will span .7 miles along Colonial Hills Circle, passing under Peachtree Road near Piedmont Hospital and linking with existing trail at Bobby Jones Golf Course.

Like most of the Northwest Trail, Segment 2 won’t travel at all through railroad corridor.

Real estate purchases and easements for Segment 2 began when design drawing for the trail reached 60 percent complete, according to Beltline officials.

Those drawings are expected to be wrapped by year’s end, but a construction start date has yet to be announced.

How Segment 2 is planned to pass under Peachtree Road, just north of Piedmont Hospital. A lounge space and The Fresh Market are depicted at top left, on opposite sides of Peachtree Road. PATH Foundation/Atlanta Beltline Inc.