Photos: Atlanta Beltline construction abounds as 2018 winds down

In terms of Atlanta Beltline construction, 2018 might not have been as momentous as 2017, when roughly four miles of fresh paths materialized in the form of the Westside Trail and a one-mile Eastside Trail extension, which brought the Beltline south through Cabbagetown and Reynoldstown.

By comparison, 2018 was a year of filling smaller but crucial Beltline gaps. And preparing for future segments that could alter the city’s functionality and development patterns.

It’s been a historically wet year, but that hasn’t stopped the concrete from flowing at two sites that promise to make the Eastside Trail experience more contiguous and useful for Beltline trekkers, as the below photo essay illustrates.

Elsewhere in 2018, the City of Atlanta purchased for $26 million the future Southside Trail corridor—a 63-acre tapestry of postindustrial and residential terrain—from railroad company CSX. That corridor has since been converted to walking trails, as design work for the paved trail progresses.

Engineering work, community engagement, and other preparations are also moving forward at the Eastside Trail’s opposite end, north of Piedmont Park, where a segment called the “Northeast Trail” could launch full construction in about two years, eventually extending up to MARTA’s Lindbergh station, officials have said.

And in August, the Beltline spent $6.3 million to take control of the last inactive rail corridor in the project’s blueprints—the “Kudzu Line,” a 1.8-mile segment connecting Westside neighborhoods Bankhead, English Avenue, Knight Park, and Howell Station.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Below is a northward journey, beginning at Memorial Drive, that illustrates where Beltline enthusiasts can expect to be jogging, walking, pedaling, skating, scootering, or dancing into the new year.

Curbed Atlanta

• More from the Visual Journeys series around Atlanta [Curbed Atlanta]