The Dirt on PATH400

Denise Starling, executive director of Livable Buckhead, gives us the dirt on PATH400 progress.

Hey everybody! It’s that time again – your monthly update on what’s happening with construction on PATH400!

Let’s begin by changing the title of this month’s publication from “The Dirt” to “The Mud” because Mother Nature obviously doesn’t understand that it is APRIL showers that bring MAY flowers.

Our awesome construction team, ASTRA, is well underway and it is now officially looking like a construction site complete with construction trailer (office), erosion control fences to protect the creek, and some fun equipment. This may not excite you, but my construction boots are so happy to be back in the wardrobe rotation!

Notable Updates

TREES:  Let’s begin by talking trees. I have been pretty impressed with how the team handled tree removal. They understood that we wanted to minimize disruption and were attentive to taking out only what really had to come out. They are finished with that, so consider the Band-Aid ripped off.

BRIDGE: The next work to begin is the bridge over the creek. CW Matthews, our bridge contractor, will start by digging the footings for the construction of the columns that will support the bridge. If you want to impress your engineer friends, call these “bents” when you refer to them!

The bridge will span the valley (otherwise known as Mountain Way Common) and stay up quite high – almost as high as the GA 400 bridge. This work will get noisy as the big machinery comes in, but of course the team will adhere to noise ordinance hours.

PARK ACCESS:  Safety is the top concern, so fences have been installed to control access to the work zone. We are allowing access to the creek from the North Ivy Road side of the park – please feel free to take advantage of that!

TRAFFIC IMPACTS: As we bring in the big equipment and maneuver it around, there may be some temporary impacts to Mountain Way, North Ivy, Wieuca, and Loridans. These won’t be too significant – an occasional interruption as equipment moves – but nothing that will cause much inconvenience. The team is aware of school traffic and knows to avoid that. If you have driven GA 400 lately, you’ve probably seen that we have installed a new concrete barrier to protect the worksite from the cars whizzing by.

A Special Thanks

Thanks to Joel, Bob, Mike, Charlie, Edward, Addison, Scottie, Lucas, and Knox, who all came out to help us attack the graffiti that had popped up under the Mountain Way Common bridge. This small but mighty group was able to remove all of the graffiti in record time.

Remember to visit our Volunteer page to find more volunteer opportunities like this one!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to me directly. My email is denise@livablebuckhead.org and my cell number is 404-376-0127.