The Dirt on PATH400

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

It’s official – summer is here!

School is out, temperatures are starting to soar, we all want to be at the beach, and at least half of us probably are right now.

The season may have changed, but one thing you can count on is that construction is still going strong. I’m just glad it isn’t me out there doing all the manual labor in this heat. I guess sometimes it is perfectly ok to have a desk job… assuming that desk is next to the air conditioning vent!

Mountain Drive Closure

Mountain Drive is now officially closed through the end of the year between the GA 400 overpass and North Ivy Road. Please note that this closure applies to vehicles AND walkers, joggers, and bikers. It is closed to everyone who is not an official project worker. This is for your safety, so I BEG you to adhere to it. There is a lot of work going on overhead, and we don’t need anyone getting clunked on the head by a falling tape measure, hammer, or major piece of equipment!

Special thanks to Ashley on Mountain Drive who let us know that some city services have been interrupted as a result of the closure. This clearly shouldn’t have happened, but it seems there were some communication complications in the permitting process. I have personally reached out to ensure Public Works (trash and yard trimmings) and fire and police services are aware of the closures and plan accordingly to ensure they maintain strong response times. And, another special thanks to Corona in Councilman Shook’s office who is helping us out on this!

Construction Happenings

You might have noticed the focus of the work right now is major grading and the installation of the bridge foundation. We have finished the first bridge bent so you can see the approximate height of the trail as it crosses over Mountain Way Common. We have a total of seven of these with three more underway and in varying stages of completion. All of these are built the same way: dig the foundation, form it up, pour the concrete, form up the next section, pour and so on until you reach the right height! This work will continue for the next several weeks.

Crisis #1 – Averted

I personally think it is exciting enough to have major construction going on, but sometimes a few monkey wrenches are thrown into the mix to liven things up even more. The latest for us: we were 48 hours away from getting our federal funds do-obligated because we hadn’t gotten a pay app processed and submitted to GDOT within the allowable timeframe. Thanks to Councilman Shook for jumping in to make sure this happened. Because of his efforts, we were able to skate in under the wire with a cool 24 hours to spare…WHEW!!!

Crisis #2 – Rears its ugly head

This crisis doesn’t impact this section of work, but it does impact the next one from Loridans to the City limits. While we thought we were fully funded, we just learned that we have another $1 Million to raise. Long story short – we are designing the full project from Loridans to Glenridge together with the City of Sandy Springs, then splitting it between the two jurisdictions for construction. However, a portion of the construction that will be done by Sandy Springs in the City of Atlanta limits was overlooked and the cost was not allocated to our side of the project. The overall total was right, but the allocations weren’t. So, if you would like to contribute a donation of any kind, please do so here!

Meet the People

There are a few key people on the team that are making this section of PATH400 a reality, and I would like for you to know who they are! Let’s begin with the awesome folks at the ASTRA Group, our general contractor:

Shawn Springston: Shawn is a General Manager on the company leadership team, and he is the Principal in Charge on this job. He is the guy that you don’t see a whole lot unless something goes wrong. So, while he is a great guy, and we like him a lot – we really don’t want to see much of him around!

Kyle Glasgow: Kyle is the Project Managar, or as I like to say, the conductor of this little orchestra. He is an engineer and project manager all rolled into one, and generally, the guy who keeps everything going from day-to-day.

Victor Sandoval: Victor is the Superintendent on the job, and he is the guy who really knows how to build this stuff. He is the one who is out there every single day making sure everything is done perfectly.

Nazanin Ashori: Nazi is the assistant project manager on this project, and between us, she is keeping all these boys’ butts in line! She is the one who works on all the details and ensures nothing gets overlooked. She’s often in the background, but don’t underestimate her! Let’s face it – we all know that behind every team of men is a woman holding it all together 😊

Elsa Santiago: Elsa is also an assistant project manager who comes from a banking background, and with a $14M project budget, let’s just say there is a lot of focus on tracking finances. Federal funds have a lot of red tape to adhere to, and Elsa is right there making sure we have all the proper documentation in place.

Share Your Knowledge

We want to keep everyone as informed as possible throughout the construction process. Please help us do that by passing this email on to your friends and neighbors so they can sign up to receive it themselves.

That’s all I have for this edition…see you next time! As always, feel free to contact me with any questions you have!