Special Alert: The Dirt on PATH400

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

Good morning, loyal Dirt readers. I am interrupting our regularly scheduled programming to bring you some breaking news. The gods of steel have spoken and they have said…

You heard that right. The past several months of banging our heads against a wall have come to an end, and there is steel in sight! This would not have happened without the tremendous efforts from our partners at the Georgia Department of Transportation, who have colored just a little outside the lines with us to find a way to make it happen. Patrick, Steve, Don, Scott and Peter – special thanks to you all for going the extra mile (well 450 feet) for us!

So now what? Now that the steel has passed muster, it must be painted which will take a few days, AND Mother Nature has to cooperate (you all know about my “issues” with her!) Once painted, it gets loaded up on a truck in Houston for its ride to the ATL which will take another few days. We expect to have steel onsite and ready to rock by May 13th!!!

But guess what? That isn’t even the best news of all. The construction team is pulling out all the stops to meet the original construction timeline! (I guess the liquidated damages in the contract are motivational after all!) So, as of right now, we are still looking at the whole section from Wieuca to Loridans being substantially complete in April of 2025. (OMG, Denise, you know better than to publish a completion date – what the heck are you thinking??)

I should probably include a disclaimer: The information expressed herein is subject to being totally tanked by acts of Mother Nature and any other unforeseen issues that may arise that require herding of cats to resolve.

This is all great news for PATH400, but there is a bit of a downside:

• Road Closed Again: You knew it was coming… your beloved secret cut through on Mountain Drive will be closed again starting May 13th in order for our construction team to swing some steel around, hammer stuff and pour concrete overhead. The plan is to close it during the summer months and have it back in action for the start of school – roughly three months.
• Extended Construction Hours: To get all of this work expedited, we need to allow the construction crews to run in multiple shifts. To do this, we will allow them to work from 7am to 7pm, with the noisy stuff. They will be allowed to be onsite until 8pm but with no noisy work between 7pm and 8pm. There will also be Saturday work during the hours of 9am and 4pm.

We apologize for the disruption, and now return to our regularly scheduled programming already in progress…