First Beltline trail with direct MARTA station access enters pipeline

The first connector trail to provide direct access between the mainline Atlanta Beltline and a MARTA transit station is officially moving forward, with a goal of providing mobility options and more equitable access to the popular, growing multi-use trail loop.

Atlanta Beltline Inc. has opened the Request for Qualifications process to find qualified engineering and design firms for a spur project called the “Murphy and Oakland City Connector Trail” in Southwest Atlanta.

The forked connector trail will span a total of 1.31 miles in the Oakland City and Capitol View neighborhoods, branching off the Southside Trail’s Segment 1 access point near Allene Avenue and junction of the Westside Trail.  

One .86-mile trail section will provide an off-street, direct link to the Oakland City MARTA station from the Beltline.

That longer piece, dubbed the Oakland City segment, will span from Allene Avenue, cross over Sylvan Road, and end at the MARTA hub. According to ABI, survey and design work will determine that segment’s exact, most effective alignment.

The other trail section, the .45-mile Murphy Connector, will run between two important properties owned by the Beltline before ending at Murphy Avenue.

Those properties include the 20-acre Murphy Crossing redevelopment site, where more than 1,100 new residential units, 180,000 square feet of commercial space, and more high-density development could eventually take shape, beginning next year.

The Murphy Connector would also run next to a 9-acre industrial site called Avon the Beltline owns.

The connector trails will each be 12-feet wide with two-foot soft shoulders. Security cameras, lighting, connections to adjacent streets, storm drainage with green infrastructure, and more components will be included. The project is currently funded up to its design stage, per Beltline officials.

Qualification from interested companies are due Nov. 14, or a little more than three weeks from today.  

Bigger picture, the Beltline reports that 10.4 miles of the 22-mile mainline loop and 10.3 miles of connector trails have been completed so far.

The pace of construction has accelerated, however, and 85 percent of the project is either finished or under construction today, totaling 17.5 miles, according to Beltline leadership.  

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