Photos: Buckhead PATH400’s newest section is hilly, walled, finished

Multi-use trail now totals 2.5 miles in Atlanta’s northern reaches

By Josh Green@JoshGreen1234 Mar 15, 2017, 12:58pm EDT

A man walks along PATH 400 in Buckhead in mid-March, chilly. — Where high-speed car commuters and pedestrians safely coexist.

The Beltline has been in the news plenty in recent weeks, with headlines concerning trail construction, affordable housing, and Alpharetta’s desire to create its own Beltline-like trail.

Meanwhile, PATH400 in Buckhead just keeps getting it done. Quietly.

Despite bone-chilling temps in the 50s and uncomfortably drizzly conditions, we ventured out this week to see how the latest PATH400 section has turned out.

The multi-use trail, running along Ga. Highway 400 through Buckhead, stretches more than 2.5 miles now, which means it’s halfway done, less than three years after construction launched.

Last summer, we toured these reaches of PATH400 while they were under construction and peered deeper into unbuilt sections that are behind locked gates now. And here’s a visual tour of the more well-known first phase.

But now, zip up that rain jacket, mind the puddles, and enjoy these fresh perspectives on the city ...

The newly completed PATH400 extension runs beside the highway at Old Ivy Road.

Stone walls, cable railings, and sound-reducing fencing abound.

The trail has several pronounced elevation changes.

Star Wars artwork adorns the wall separating the trail from neighborhoods.

These sporadic benches are nice for PATH400 patrons needing a little pitstop.

A warning to bikers and hikers that PATH400 turns at Wieuca Road instead of crossing the busy road.

Traffic on Wieuca Road as PATH400 continues.

PATH400 crosses Ga. Highway 400 on Wieuca Road. This stretch comes to an end, at least for now, shortly after.

Currently one end of PATH400 stops at the intersection of Wieuca and Ivy roads.

The return trip. A hiker comes down the hill overlooking the highway along PATH400.

Towers rise above the sound-muffling fencing headed towards Old Ivy Road.

A waterlogged dirt path off Miami Circle. Looks like construction may have begun on this part of PATH400.

A dead end. Where PATH400 meets the end of Miami Circle near Eclipse di Luna. A fence blocks what is a planned section of the trail.

Piles of beams sit to the right of the fence blocking the section of PATH400 at Miami Circle.

UPDATE: A clarification pertaining to the photos below, per Livable Buckhead:

The Gordon Bynum pedestrian bridge over GA 400 is the start of a spur trail that will eventually run all the way to the Lenox MARTA station. So the last three photos in the set are of the future spur trail, not PATH400. This spur trail is likely the first of several that will connect to PATH400 since the project was always envisioned as a spine that would connect much broader network of trails, parks and greenspaces throughout Buckhead and beyond.