Engineering The World Cup

For Atlanta’s Traffic Engineers, Next Summer Brings An ‘Unparalleled’ Challenge

DAVID CARAVIELLO

When the city of Atlanta presented its bid to be a host city for the 2026 World Cup, its multilayered transportation network played a significant role. The Georgia capital boasted the world’s busiest airport, the nation’s eighth-largest public transit system by ridership, an expansive highway system—and as important, a savvy team of traffic engineers with a proven track record of making it all work together.

“Atlanta’s robust and interconnected transportation infrastructure played a critical role in our selection as a host city for the FIFA World Cup 2026,” said Dan Corso, President of the Atlanta Sports Council and the Atlanta World Cup Host Committee. “… As one of the most frequent hosts of global sporting events, Atlanta has shown that we have the infrastructure in place to reliably handle the immense scale of hosting major sporting events while creating a seamless experience for teams, fans, and media.”

That approach was rewarded on June 16, 2022, when Atlanta was officially named one of 16 host cities for the tournament to be played throughout North America—in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Mercedes-Benz Stadium will host eight matches from June 15 to July 15, including Round of 32, Round of 16, and semifinal contests. With over 70,000 people expected for each game, it shapes up as Atlanta’s largest international sporting event since the Centennial Olympic Games in 1996.

From a transportation perspective, that event can bring back bad memories—inexperienced bus drivers, shuttles lost between remote parking lots and venues, athletes showing up late for competitions. But a lot has changed over the past 30 years in Atlanta, including the city’s ability to handle the transportation challenges surrounding major events. The experience built over multiple Super Bowls, Final Fours, marquee college football games, and soccer tournaments such as the recent Club World Cup will all be brought to bear next summer, when the world again returns to Atlanta.

“Mercedes-Benz Stadium has hosted multiple high-profile events since 2017, giving us years of experience in managing special events. Throughout these events, we have collaborated closely with stakeholders and continuously improved our approaches. In Atlanta, we don’t consider any event to be practice runs—we bring our A-game to every event we manage,” said Allison Laber, a Traffic Engineer with Kimley-Horn, which will support GDOT and the city of Atlanta with two teams dedicated to World Cup transportation management.

“We'll be applying insights from Super Bowl LIII in 2019 and the most recent College Football Playoff National Championship held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium this past January,” she added. “While the FIFA Club World Cup events that took place were different than what we expect in 2026, they allowed us to build valuable relationships with FIFA through real-time collaboration during those events. These experiences have enabled us to refine our strategies and ensure we're prepared for the unique needs of the FIFA World Cup.”

SCALING UP

The most recent Super Bowl held in Atlanta, the 2019 title clash between the Patriots and Rams, certainly showed all that collaboration and experience at work. Tried-and-true transportation management strategies allowed engineers to whisk the New England and Los Angeles team buses from one location to another, and clear intersections to allow for pedestrian passage in areas near the stadium with heavy foot traffic.

“Parts of the plan from Super Bowl LIII are still relevant to special event operations, and current operational strategies were designed in such a way to scale up for larger events like the World Cup,” said Justin Hatch, Assistant State Traffic Engineer for GDOT. “However, it is essential that plans such as these continually be revisited to address changes in infrastructure, shifting transportation modes, current road user priorities, and unique event context.”

Wait—scale up, from the Super Bowl? Indeed, there’s a reason the World Cup is known as the planet’s largest sporting event. FIFA has estimated that next summer’s tournament will attract 3.7 million fans to the 11 host cities in the United States. No wonder, then, that traffic engineers stress that the Super Bowl and World Cup are very different animals from a transportation management perspective.

As big as it is, the Super Bowl is the climax of a week-long event, and culminates with just one game involving two teams. The World Cup will stretch on for a month, Atlanta will host at least nine different teams (the official schedule stipulates one match in each of Groups A, C, and K, and two in Group H), and the event will be loaded with ancillary events like concerts, festivals, and watch parties. Those managing transportation around Atlanta’s matches won’t know until after the December draw which teams are bound for the Peach State—although it won’t be the U.S. for the group stage, whose preliminary matches are already booked for Los Angeles and Seattle.

“The FIFA World Cup is unparalleled with more matches, teams, and days, spanning a massive geography across three countries,” Laber said. “Each of the eight FIFA World Cup matches will indeed bring unique complexities. A lot will depend on factors like team draws, match times, and the overall number of people coming to Atlanta, beyond just those attending the FIFA Fan Festival or the matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Each match, especially a semifinal versus a group stage match, will have a unique fan base and different user groups, so the plan will need to be adaptable and coordinated among local stakeholders.”

Added GDOT’s Hatch: “We've proven that we can handle high volumes of visitors and readily adapt to the specific context of a given event. That said, international soccer brings a unique set of challenges and opportunities—from the diversity of fans to the global attention it draws. We're approaching this with a deep respect for that uniqueness and a clear-eyed understanding that it requires flexible, responsive planning. We continue to work closely with our partners in transportation and public safety to ensure that we prepared for the expected, while developing contingency plans for the unexpected.”

Managing those uncertainties hinges on having a solid plan in place. The city of Atlanta, Laber said, is leading the development of a comprehensive mobility plan that integrates all modes of transportation—including pedestrian, transit, rideshare, and personal vehicles— into a unified strategy. GDOT will manage its statewide signal operations and maintenance program, known as “SigOps,” which ensures traffic signals are optimized to respond to conditions on the ground. The metro Atlanta SigOps team, led by engineer Sam Hendow, will update its downtown special events playbook to reflect the unique transportation needs and challenges of the World Cup.

Kimley-Horn supports those efforts through two dedicated teams working on World Cup transportation. One is collaborating with the city of Atlanta to develop its mobility plan for the tournament, which will be built to ensure the safe and efficient movement of fans, teams, officials, and other stakeholders. In addition, a Kimley-Horn signal operations team will play a central role in active traffic management around Mercedes-Benz Stadium, other downtown Atlanta locations, and beyond.

“While the primary impact will be concentrated in downtown Atlanta, the ripple effects of an event of this magnitude will be felt across the entire metro area,” said Kimley-Horn Traffic Engineer Jackie Kawa. “And our team will be actively engaged in mitigating those impacts across the region.”

SIGOPS AND SCRAMBLES

It was called the “green carpet,” and it unfolded with the seamlessness of any other big play executed on that Super Bowl Sunday in Atlanta in early 2019. As the Rams and Patriots team buses rolled from their hotels to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, one traffic signal after another flipped to green to keep them moving. The same tactic was used for shuttles carrying cheerleaders, referees, and even media members—all part of an effort to keep traffic flowing on a weekend when all eyes were on Atlanta.

“The ‘green carpet’ concept involves clearing traffic ahead of escorted movements, reducing the need for vehicles to pull over or for escorts to travel on the wrong side of the roadway, and quickly return traffic signal operations to their normal state,” Kawa said. “This not only minimizes delays, but also ensures safer and more reliable operation for both pedestrians and vehicles. Successfully implementing a ‘green carpet’ requires ongoing coordination between transportation engineers and officers.”

And it’s just one tactic transportation engineers can use during the 2026 World Cup, where nobody wants to see the Brazil or Argentina team buses—assuming one of those powers is assigned to the city—stuck at a red light. Another is called a ‘pedestrian scramble,’ in which engineers temporarily stop vehicular traffic in all four directions in high-pedestrian areas like the immediate vicinity of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, to allow walkers to cross the intersection in any way they wish, even diagonally.

“The other strategy we have is to spread out the traffic,” Hatch said. “There are multiple ways for attendees to access parking decks, but most drivers try to use the same ‘front door’ entrance. By restricting turn movements or ways to access certain parking decks, we spread out the demand.”

The same tactic can be used for egress, to avoid the prospect drivers all trying to exit downtown Atlanta using the same interstate ramp at Ivan Allen Boulevard and Williams Street. “The plan only directs a small number of people to the Williams ramp by restricting turns and directing drivers to use all the freeway entrance points to the north, south, and east of downtown,” Hatch said. “This can also be aided by programming the turn restrictions in Waze and other mapping systems.”

The entire operation will be run out of GDOT’s Emergency Operations Center, which Hatch said will serve as the primary management command center for the World Cup, with representatives of GDOT, city of Atlanta DOT, Atlanta police, and the Georgia World Congress Center on site. The SigOps teams will manage traffic signal changes—largely remotely, rather than relying on individuals standing physically at interchange boxes—while maintaining contact with police and Kimley-Horn engineers in the vicinity of the stadium and on the ground.

It all breeds a sense of teamwork burnished from one big event to the next. “Metro Atlanta has many jurisdictional boundaries which lead to unique challenges in managing large numbers of people throughout a major metropolitan region,” Hatch said. “By collaborating over many years, all these stakeholders have worked to reach consensus on operational goals, eliminate silos, distribute valuable resources, and ensure availability expertise regardless of jurisdictional boundaries.”

SETTING ATLANTA APART

Those levels of cooperation and communication are major reasons why Atlanta’s major-event transportation management has come so far in the three decades since the 1996 Olympics. FIFA’s confidence in the city is plainly evident in the fact that the Georgia capital was awarded eight matches in the 2026 World Cup, tied for second-most of any host city behind Dallas with nine. “Hosting eight matches, including key group and knockout stage games, speaks volumes about FIFA’s confidence in Atlanta,” said Corso, of the Atlanta Sports Council. “It’s a strong endorsement of the city’s infrastructure, hospitality community, venues, and organizational readiness and preparedness. Mercedes-Benz Stadium is one of the most technologically advanced venues in the world, and the city’s track record for delivering top-tier fan experiences clearly influenced the decision. In Atlanta, we are fortunate to have a group of organizations and individuals that are accustomed to working together to ensure operational readiness when we are hosting major global sporting events.”

Kimley-Horn is no stranger to that effort, having also worked on the 2018 College Football Playoff national championship and the 2019 Super Bowl. “Much like a well-coordinated soccer team, our culture of teamwork and support will be pivotal in navigating the complexities of such a major event,” Laber said. “Our team thrives on these opportunities and loves the work we do. Not just us at Kimley-Horn, but all stakeholders involved. Our long hours during the Super Bowl were some of the most rewarding moments in our careers, because everyone felt like they were contributing to something meaningful and showcasing Atlanta on the global stage.”

Over at GDOT, Hatch feels the same way. “The World Cup will be the largest event that I have ever been a part of managing, and I’m absolutely looking forward to it,” he said. “This is the kind of challenge that motivates us—helping Atlanta create a world-class experience for everyone who steps foot in our city. Every person on our team is excited to serve a part in getting people to and from these events safely and with as little disruption as possible.”

The World Cup transportation plan will be ramped up over time, Laber said, to accommodate the buildup of events that will precede the actual matches themselves. Kimley-Horn also plans to conduct tabletop sessions with other key transportation partners to try and game plan various scenarios, including some that may be unexpected or unlikely. A similar effort paid dividends three days before the 2018 college football national championship, when President Trump decided to attend the game.

“We swiftly pivoted and adapted the plan accordingly,” Laber said. “Our plans are not static—they require active management and constant communication from experienced engineers and public safety officials to be effective. This flexibility, and our ability to quickly adapt, are what give us confidence in handling the unique challenges of any major event, including the FIFA World Cup.”

It's the kind of dexterity that only experience and collaboration can create. Indeed, Atlanta has come a very long way from those wayward buses and frayed nerves that came to define the Olympic experience for many visitors three decades ago. As the NFL, the NCAA, and now FIFA have recognized, the ability to successfully manage transportation around major sporting events is now viewed as one of the city’s strengths.

“There is a high level of confidence in Atlanta and Georgia's ability to manage traffic during the FIFA World Cup 2026, thanks to the deep experience of our local and state partners managing high-capacity events. Atlanta has successfully hosted two Super Bowls, two College Football Playoff national championships, multiple Final Fours, and major conventions that have drawn hundreds of thousands of visitors. Each of those events required immense coordination between city and state agencies, regional transit and law enforcement,” Corso said.

“What sets Atlanta apart is the continuity of planning expertise and the regular joint exercises that GDOT and the city conduct with other stakeholders. These teams are not starting from scratch—they’re building on decades of data, tested playbooks, and real-world successes.”