BEYOND 2030, WE'LL HAVE CREATED THIS SIGNIFICANT PIECE OF INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE COMMUNITY, AND WE'RE VERY PROUD OF THE 45 NEIGHBORHOODS THAT WE WILL INITIALLY CONNECT. BUT HOW BENEFICIAL WOULD IT BE IF WE COULD CONNECT TO EVERY SINGLE NEIGHBORHOOD IN THE CITY OF ATLANTA? BEYOND 2026 The 2026 World Cup will come and go, but the Beltline will continue. With the Westside Trail in place, work will soon begin to focus on the northwest section of the oval—where the topography can be challenging, some bridges may need to be shored up, and like Westside Trail 4 there’s not always an existing railbed to build on. “That’s going to take significant effort,” Higgs said. Even so, Higgs is confident that the Beltline remains on target to complete the full 22-mile loop by 2030, which was its original goal. After that, though, he envisions something even grander. Once the circle is finished, Higgs wants to start filling in the spokes in the middle. “Beyond 2030, we'll have created this significant piece of infrastructure for the community, and we're very proud of the 45 neighborhoods that we will initially connect. But how beneficial would it be if we could connect to every single neighborhood in the city of Atlanta?” Higgs said. “Now that's ambitious, and we're having conversations about the appropriate funding mechanisms to make that happen.” After all, the World Cup will hardly be the last major sporting event to visit Atlanta. The NFL’s Super Bowl is returning for the fourth time in 2019, and the men’s college basketball Final Four in 2031. With each year, each mile completed, each economic development success, and each big event awarded to the capital of the Peach State, the Atlanta Beltline becomes even more integral to the city’s transportation framework. “We're improving how people move without needing a car, and that is what makes a city more of an international city,” Storck said. “So it's really cool to see that Beltline is such a huge, huge part of that inherent connectivity, and not just for transportation. It's something else to do while you're here. It's a way to see Atlanta beyond just sports.” A
52 Engineering Georgia
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