Westside BeltLine Trail Opens

The first segment of the Westside BeltLine Trail to be completed was dedicated on October 19th. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, Jim Kennedy, representing The James M. Cox Foundation, Atlanta BeltLine CEO, Clyde Higgs, and PATH Executive Director Greta deMayo, were among those dignitaries in attendance.

PATH and Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. partnered to develop the trail using primarily philanthropic funding, largely from The James M. Cox Foundation. The section that was dedicated extends from the Westside BeltLine Connector, built by the same partnership in 2020, to Huff Road in Atlanta’s booming upper Westside neighborhood. This phase of the BeltLine will serve as the primary BeltLine Trail and as a component of PATH’s Silver Comet to downtown trail initiative.

Philanthropic funding was supplemented by a Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program (GOSP) grant, money collected by the state as a tax on the sale of outdoor equipment, and distributed through a grant program to build recreational infrastructure such as trails. The planning, design, and construction were managed by the PATH team while ASTRA Construction was the primary contractor on the job.

The right-of-way for the new section of BeltLine Trail was created by reconfiguring Marietta Boulevard from a five-lane to a three-lane roadway, establishing a new curb line, and using the new, wider shoulder for a landscaped buffer and the trail (see photos above). There was no abandoned rail corridor for the BeltLine in this area.

This trail segment with its connection to the Westside BeltLine Connector, creates a seamless trail from Huff Road at Marietta Boulevard to Centennial Olympic Park. Future segments of the Northwest BeltLine Trail, already in design, will connect Huff Road at Marietta Boulevard to Bobby Jones Golf Course and the Northeast BeltLine Trail. PATH’s effort to connect the Silver Comet Trail to downtown will branch off the future BeltLine Trail near the Top Golf facility. l

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