In the pipeline for more than a decade, a direct connection between the Atlanta BeltLine and Ponce de Leon Avenue is visibly moving forward this month.
Just north of Ponce City Market, construction fencing has been installed and brush cleared along a section of the Eastside Trail where a more seamless, quicker, and ADA-accessible means of exiting the BeltLine for Ponce’s shopping and eating options is being constructed.
The BeltLine’s contractor, JHC Construction, is building a steel ramp, stairs, and railings at the northwestern corner of the Ponce De Leon Avenue bridge. The project will look similar to Edgewood Avenue’s metal-ramp connection to the Eastside Trail where Old Fourth Ward meets Inman Park. The surface, however, won’t be serrated metal, in order to spare dogs’ feet, BeltLine officials have said.
The goal is to improve pedestrian and cycling conditions at the confluence of four intown neighborhoods while providing better connectivity to places like EATS, Green’s Beverages, Whole Foods, and the rest of the Midtown Place shopping center.
Where the BeltLine's ramp and stairs is being constructed on the north side of Ponce De Leon Avenue today. Submitted
A layout of the Ponce ramp system, which will look similar to Edgewood Avenue’s metal-ramp connection to the Eastside Trail, as pictured above. Courtesy of Atlanta BeltLine Inc.
An enhanced pedestrian connection at Ponce has been part of the Eastside Trail’s design since it debuted in 2012. Previous plans to begin work in summer 2021 were delayed.
The ramp installation is part of the broader Ponce de Leon Avenue Streetscapes project, an effort to improve pedestrian and bike connections between Boulevard and John Lewis Freedom Parkway.
The BeltLine reports this month that JHC is approximately 45 percent finished with the 18-month streetscapes project.
Fencing recently installed along the Eastside Trail near Ponce. Submitted
Existing bike lanes on Ponce are being milled and resurfaced, and flexible delineator posts will be installed in places throughout the project. Ponce bike lanes will be extended on both sides of the BeltLine, up to the entrance of the newish Kroger in Poncey-Highland. Today, bike lanes end just east of Ponce City Market.
Tight right-of-way constraints and existing traffic-lane configurations on that section of Ponce will prohibit the bike lanes from being extended all the way to Freedom Parkway, BeltLine planners have said.
Elsewhere, a new crosswalk will be installed in front of Ponce City Market, allowing BeltLine patrons connecting down to Ponce, or vice versa, to bypass car traffic entering and exiting the Midtown Place shopping center. Two raised medians will also be installed on either side of the BeltLine.
Courtesy of Atlanta BeltLine Inc.
Expect trees and new lighting in buffers between sidewalks and the remade bike lanes. Traffic signals will be reconfigured at Boulevard, Glen Iris Drive, Midtown Place, and the entrance to Kroger and the 725 Ponce development, per BeltLine officials.
According to the BeltLine’s timeline, all work along the .68-mile Ponce project is now scheduled to be finished in the second quarter of 2024, following about two months of rain delays so far.
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