Project Profile: Piedmont Avenue Complete Street Project

• City of Atlanta’s Renew/TSPLOST Program
• Midtown Alliance

In partnership with Midtown Alliance, Atlanta’s Renew/Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST) Program is planning improvements to about 1.1 miles of Piedmont Avenue between Ponce De Leon and 15th Street. The current corridor presents major safety issues for pedestrians and cyclists, including excessive automobile speeding, underutilized parking areas, and a lack of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant elements.

To resolve the issues, the improvements will repurpose the eastern-most parking and travel lane with a protected one-way northbound bike lane for most of the dedicated corridor. The project will replace sidewalks with multi-use paths and improve crosswalks and curb ramps to shorten crossing distances with bulb-outs.

Plans also include milling and resurfacing the roadway, formalizing on-street parking on the west side, and upgrading sidewalks to be ADA-compliant. The city also plans to install stormwater planters to relieve pressure on the combined sewer system. The roadway will include two vehicular travel lanes (ten-to-eleven feet wide each) with additional dedicated turn lanes at key intersections with higher traffic demand.

$5.1 million

$2.1 million - Midtown Improvement District Funds
$3 million - City of Atlanta TSPLOST funds for construction

*Cost may change upon project completion

• Midtown Improvement District Funds
• City of Atlanta Renew/TSPLOST

Conceptual planning began in November 2016 and was completed in July 2017. This included an inventory and analysis of existing physical conditions, a traffic study, and an on-street parking analysis. A public meeting was held in March 2017 to present initial conceptual plans and receive feedback and ideas from the community. The completed conceptual plans and documentation of existing conditions are linked in the gallery below.

The preliminary planning phase included additional public and stakeholder engagement, and development of more detailed design documents. Design and engineering kicked-off in 2018 to develop construction plans and bid documents, with delivery of final construction documents expected in 2020. Following easement negotiations and public Invitation to Bid, project construction is estimated to begin in early-2021 and be complete in 2022.

• Complete street projects to increase safety and accessibility for all street users, especially for people walking, biking, and with limited mobility
• Partnership with the City of Atlanta’s Renew/TSPLOST Program for project funding
• Replacing the sidewalk with a multi-use path, and crosswalk and curb ramp improvements to shorten the crossing distances where possible with bulb-outs.
• The plan will repurpose the eastern-most parking and travel lane with a protected one-way northbound bike lane for most of the dedicated corridor. A dedicated bike lane with bollard separators creates safer travel for cyclists, eliminating the having to risk weaving through pedestrians on a sidewalk or sharing the road with fast-moving vehicles.
• Adding stormwater planters to relieve pressure on the street’s combined sewer system will lessen the chances of on-street puddles after heavy rain.

• Piedmont Avenue Complete Street Project
• Complete Street Vision for Piedmont Avenue Offers Improved Access for All
• Lord Aeck Sargent
• Atlanta Downtown Improvement District
• Atlanta Curbed