After years of advocacy, planning, and late-stage pushback from some neighbors, the process of making a key section of Boulevard more accurately live up to its name is set to begin. 

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Atlanta Department of Transportation officials are scheduled to lead a ceremonial groundbreaking this morning for the long-planned South Boulevard Complete Streets project (alternately: South Boulevard Safe Streets, or Boulevard SE Corridor Improvement Project.)  

Concerned parents and neighbors in places such as Grant Park have been lobbying the city to remake the southern stretches of Boulevard into something less like a hilly raceway for nearly a decade.    

According to a Thursday announcement, the city’s goal is to beef up multimodal mobility and enhance safety for a 2.4-mile stretch of Boulevard—one that will be connected to the Atlanta Beltline’s finished Southside Trail next year as a gateway to points across the city. 

Plans for Complete Streets implementation where Boulevard meets the Beltline's Southside Trail. Beltline sections at top are tentatively scheduled to open early next year, followed by those at bottom prior to next summer. City of Atlanta; 2021

The Complete Streets makeover will run from just south of Oakland Cemetery on the north end (Woodward Avenue) to McDonough Boulevard at the south terminus, at the doorstep of Atlanta’s federal prison. 

Plans call for protected bike lanes and upgraded pedestrian infrastructure to stretch through several neighborhoods—Grant Park, Boulevard Heights, Chosewood Park, and Benteen Park—to provide easier and safer connections for non-motorists. 

Along with the Beltline, other points of interest along the route include Zoo Atlanta, Grant Park (the city’s oldest greenspace), Boulevard Crossing Park, Red’s Beer Garden, El Progresso #14 (aka, Prison Tacos), and numerous other businesses. 

Specific changes call for lane geometry adjustments, street resurfacing, and new bike facilities with striping, bollards, and signal upgrades.

Full scope of South Boulevard's planned safe streets overhaul from north of Interstate 20 to McDonough Boulevard. Atlanta Department of Transportation

The changes are also designed to help make Boulevard safer for Grant Park visitors on foot and kids walking to area schools, as Rebecca Serna, executive director of safe streets advocacy organization Propel ATL, wrote in a recent retrospective.

Localized efforts to change Boulevard began to bear fruit in 2017, back when neighbors succeeded in convincing city officials to extend the Monroe Drive/Boulevard Complete Street project farther south. 

City leaders officially proposed the South Boulevard Complete Streets in 2021, and years of community engagement, meetings, and an open house followed. 

Alongside Dickens and ATLDOT brass, city commissioner Solomon Caviness, District 1 Atlanta City Councilmember Jason Winston, and community members and leaders are scheduled to attend today’s ceremonies. 

Construction on the Boulevard Complete Streets initiative is scheduled to officially start in November and wrap in September next year, according to ATLDOT. 

For alternate transportation enthusiasts of Atlanta, it’s a Happy Friday/Happy Halloween indeed. 

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