Eastside Trail Construction Update: Ponce Closing THIS WEEKEND and Progress in Concrete and Steel!

Reminder! Ponce de Leon Avenue will be closed this weekend and next weekend for Eastside Trail construction.

Beginning the weekend of March 23, 2012, the bridge over Ponce de Leon Avenue will be raised off of its existing abutments to be remediated, retrofitted and repainted as part of construction. The stretch of road between Ponce de Leon Place and the Midtown Place Shopping Center (across from Ponce City Market) will be closed from March 23 through 26 and again from March 30 through April 2, 2012All of the shops at Midtown Place will be open and accessible during this road closure!

The closures will start at 9 p.m. on Friday evening and will reopen by 5 a.m. Monday morning.  Road signs have already been in place for the two weeks leading up to the closures to alert drivers on Ponce de Leon Avenue.

While the bridge is raised, crews will install decking and scaffolding to protect cars and pedestrians, remove old paint, prime the metal, and repaint it. The bridge will then be fitted with unobtrusive security fencing as required by the Georgia DOT. Additional weekend closures can be expected to lower the bridge and complete construction of the Eastside Trail.

Ponce de Leon detour routes
While Ponce de Leon Avenue is closed for Eastside Trail construction, all of the surrounding businesses will be open and accessible.

Exciting Progress from the Last Two Weeks!

Between pouring the concrete for a winding spur trail connecting to the Freedom Park Trail to the swinging steel beams forming a new bridge over Ralph McGill Boulevard, the Atlanta BeltLine’s Eastside Trail is in the midst of an exciting few weeks! So many of you followed our progress on facebook as we filled your news feeds with live photos and videos of the bridge going in next to the old railroad bridge over Ralph McGill, but did you see this video that we didn’t put up on facebook?

Fresh from this morning, this photo of the Ralph McGill bridge shows the foundational rebar. We love the way the cherry red paint glows in the rising sun.

Ralph McGill bridge on the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail
We hope that our condo-dwellers on Ralph McGill Boulevard are as excited about their future trail as we are!

Ralph McGill Boulevard will remain closed just a little bit longer – through March 29th – to finish up installation and start stitching stretches of the Eastside Trail together.

For our regular and recreational riders of the Freedom Park Trail, you will love the progress made on that front! A picture is worth a thousand words…

first section of the Eastside Trail's spur to the Freedom Park Trail
The first section of the Eastside Trail's spur to the Freedom Park Trail.

If you have more questions about the Eastside Trail construction, please visit our website at eastsidetrail.beltline.org. The best places for breaking news updates are always our Atlanta BeltLine facebook page and twitter feed.

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