Images: (More) big changes in store for Midtown's streets

The barriers finally came down this week across all 12 blocks of the Juniper Street Complete Street Project in Midtown (to the chagrin of at least one local media personality), as construction of its sister, northbound project continues on Piedmont Avenue.

But those are hardly the only multi-modal changes in the works across Midtown.

Midtown Alliance revealed this week that safety improvements for non-drivers are set to ramp up across 2026 on two of the district’s main corridors—Spring Street and West Peachtree Street—as part of long-planned improvements pushed by the City of Atlanta. One section of work is already underway on Spring Street.

The bike lanes and other safety implementations will join LIT lanes—that’s light individual transport—completed across several blocks of Spring Street in late 2021.

The projects will create a north-south, paired experience of protected bike lanes across most of Midtown, roughly stretching from Peachtree Street down to a block south of the Bank of America Plaza tower. The partnership effort with the city dates back to a $5-million plan announced in 2019 by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ administration following a spate of four fatal scooter accidents across the city over just a few months.

“This is going to completely transform Midtown,” one enthused reader wrote via email. “Times are changing quickly.”

A quick rundown:

Rough scope of planned Spring Street and West Peachtree Street multi-phase safety improvements across most of Midtown. Google Maps/UA

Now: What’s under construction today, according to Midtown Alliance, is the section of safety improvements on Spring Street, stretching from 17th Street (near Atlantic Station) up to Peachtree Street.

That’s repurposing one southbound traffic lane into a protected lane for bicycles and other non-motorized transport. Other components include wider sidewalks, traffic signal upgrades, pedestrian lighting, ADA upgrades, and street trees, per Midtown Alliance.

This month: West Peachtree Street upgrades across a wide section of Midtown—from Linden Avenue near downtown, up to 11th Street—are set to kick off this month.

That calls for creating a one-way, northbound protected bike lane and several on-street parking spaces from an existing traffic lane. Other changes will see the street resurfaced, signals modified, ADA infrastructure upgraded, and bus stops enhanced throughout the corridor.

Looking south toward downtown, how changes will be implemented on West Peachtree Street (seen here near 3rd Street) beginning this month, per Midtown Alliance. Midtown Alliance

Future: Tentatively scheduled to start in the third quarter of this year, additional upgrades are planned to link today’s work together (while improving existing Spring Street bike lanes with more protections).

The works calls for adding a protected one-way bike lane by repurposing one travel lane and several on-street parking spaces on West Peachtree between 11th and 17th Streets, and on Spring between 12th and 17th Streets. Expect ADA and bus stop enhancements along those stretches as well.

Below is a mapped timeline and more detailed breakdowns to help the scope across Midtown make sense:

Rough depiction across Midtown of scope of planned changes along two of the district's busiest thoroughfares. Google Maps/UA