A planned parks system coming to Buckhead moved another step closer to reality this week thanks to a key approval from the Atlanta City Council's Utility Committee. The committee voted to use GDOT's help creating the Buckhead Trail — a five-mile, eight- to 14-foot wide BeltLine-style trail planned along Georgia 400. When finished, the trail will transform unused space and add pedestrian tunnels and bridges similar to the one currently under construction near the Buckhead MARTA station.
The latest Buckhead Trail development is important, since most of the planned trail is located in right-of-ways next to the GDOT-maintained Georgia 400. The deal approved by the Utilities Committee calls for GDOT oversight of the trail project, while the city will pay for the project's design, construction and maintenance once it's complete. In addition to city funding, the project has used other channels to raise money like Bucks on the Street, which brought in $20,000 through the sale of 20 painted deer buck statues.
For its money, the city gets a green space boost — officially the largest expansion of green space under way in any U.S. city, when combined with the BeltLine. While the two projects are unaffiliated, the Buckhead Trail would start near Lindbergh at the BeltLine's Peachtree Creek spur. Renderings show skaters, walkers and bikers frolicking in areas currently occupied by overgrown grass and support columns for MARTA tracks. The trail heads through Buckhead — roughly parallel to Ga. 400 — until it reaches a northern terminus just south of the highway's toll plaza.
Construction on the trail could begin in the first quarter of 2014. Livable Buckhead estimates the full build could take up to five years.
— By Curbed Atlanta contributor Doug DeMuro
· Buckhead Trail to move ahead with design/build agreement with GDOT [Saporta Report]
· Plans for Ga. 400 Trail in Buckhead Barrel Forward [Curbed Atlanta]
· GA 400 Trail [Livable Buckhead]