Along newest Beltline pathway, key connection has to be rebuilt

For the second time this year, a large-scale connective feature for a new Atlanta Beltline trail is being broken down and rebuilt after construction deficiencies were found.  

As Beltline users have noticed in recent days, a large stairway that links the newest Southside Trail sections down to Grant Street, The Beacon district, and hundreds of homes including the Pratts Stacks condo community is closed for reconstruction. 

Kynthia Gaines, the Beltline’s vice president of design and construction, tells Urbanize Atlanta the project’s engineer of record identified “several cosmetic and dimensional deficiencies” during final inspections, necessitating changes. 

“As a result, we’ve temporarily closed the stairs to allow these issues to be corrected and make certain the completed project meets all required standards,” Gaines said in a statement provided by Atlanta Beltline Inc. reps. 

The work is scheduled to be finished by the end October. According to a letter from the Pratt Stacks Community Board to residents this week, “significant noise” during reconstruction is expected, though crews will use water to help control dust in the area. 

“We appreciate the community’s patience and understanding as this work is completed,” Gaines noted. 

The stairway opened in June as part of the Southside Trail’s 1.9-mile Segments 2 and 3, creating what project leaders have dubbed “the U.” That’s 16.7 miles of the continuous, mainline Beltline loop, running from south Buckhead around to Southwest Atlanta and up to Blandtown, near Atlantic Station.  

The deconstruction project follows a larger corrective measure happening at another fresh section of Beltline, the project’s Northwest Trail—Segment 1 in Buckhead. 

That’s where crews have had to disassemble a landmark suspension bridge over Peachtree Creek almost a year after it was built, delaying the trail’s scheduled completion from June to next year or possibly early 2028.

Beltline officials in March told Urbanize the bridge’s contractor, Reeves Young, is redoing it following an issue that arose during a concrete deck pour atop the structure. That also was identified during an independent engineering review. 

Reeves Young and the Beltline have frequently collaborated on other portions of the 22-mile project and adjacent amenities, such as Shirley C. Franklin Park. 

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