Following more than a decade of planning, design tweaks, fundraising, and more planning, a project meant to create a new corridor for cars and bikes in one of Atlanta’s most affluent, growing suburbs is officially underway.
City of Roswell officials, construction heads, and other dignitaries hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking this week for the initial phase of Big Creek Parkway.
In the works since at least 2013, the parkway project is designed to ease congestion at traffic pinch points in Roswell that are only getting worse—and to improve east-west connectivity for drivers, bicyclists, and people using other forms of alternative transportation, according to city officials.
Breakdown of Big Creek Parkway's two phases. Courtesy of City of Roswell
Back in 2016, Big Creek Parkway was approved by Roswell voters as a major, tier-one project in a Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or TSPLOST, referendum.
Another goal of the ambitious project is to ease the traffic burden on often-clogged Holcomb Bridge Road, which currently provides the only access to Ga. Highway 400 in Roswell. Along with Riverside Road, it’s also the only option for traveling east and west in the city.
According to official estimates, Holcomb Bridge Road sees more than 70,000 vehicles per day.
Big Creek Parkway Phase I, estimated to cost about $8.4 million, calls for easing congestion at the busy intersection of Holcomb Bridge and Warsaw roads by adding dual left-turn lanes on three of four intersection approaches, and widening Warsaw Road from two to four lanes north of Bainbridge Road. The project will also include an eight-foot-wide multi-use trail and new sidewalks, per the city.
The initial phase will eventually be just a fraction of the broader Big Creek Parkway’s scope.
Phase II calls for extending the parkway over Ga. Highway 400 with a new bridge and then connecting with Old Alabama Road, creating an arching roadway just east of Roswell’s historic downtown.
No timeline for the future phase has been specified.
Big Creek Parkway's location in Atlanta's northern suburbs. Google Maps
A scene from this week's Big Creek Parkway ceremonial groundbreaking. Courtesy of City of Roswell
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