Officials: Juniper Street overhaul complicated but progressing

Josh Green

Fri, 11/15/2024 – 08:11

With the recent news that Midtown’s 1.1-mile, northbound Piedmont Avenue Complete Street Project is gearing up to move forward after nearly a decade of planning, Atlantans couldn’t help but wonder about the status of its under-construction, southbound counterpart.

The short answer: It’s complicated, but happening.

Midtown Alliance officials describe the process of constructing the Juniper Complete Street Project—now a year and ½ after groundbreaking—as a complex, Tetris-like puzzle of disruption, pauses, and progress in a bustling part of town. Readers have recently worried that construction had been shut down altogether.

That’s not the case, according to Midtown Alliance spokesperson Brian Carr, but demand for access to Juniper Street from other entities with priority utility, construction, or filming permits has required the project’s contractor to temporarily pause work on certain blocks lately.

Changes to Juniper Street will cover 12 blocks, implementing a one-way cycletrack that starts at 14th Street near Colony Square and travels down to Ponce de Leon Avenue.

Vehicle lanes will be reduced to two, and dedicated parallel parking will be installed within a new buffer lane in places. Other additions will include bioswales, LED lighting, and street furniture. The goal—as first proposed 14 years ago—is to create a more inviting, safer corridor for multiple forms of urban mobility.

According to Carr, the majority of curb work is finished along the corridor. Crews have been installing new traffic signal poles in recent weeks, which is expected to continue through Nov. 23, per a Midtown Alliance summary.

Depiction of the southbound, barrier-separated Juniper Street bike lanes, wider sidewalks, and more. Courtesy of TSW

The project remains on budget (estimated cost: $8.7 million), but construction will extend into sometime next year, Carr said. It broke ground in May 2023 and was considered a 20-month job from the outset.

“This is a busy corridor, and ongoing construction must be sequenced to allow for continued vehicular access,” noted Carr via email. “Like the rest of the community, our team is eager to have all the upgraded features on this corridor operational. We appreciate the community’s patience as work continues.”

The Juniper Street project was funded with a mix of city transportation impact fees, federal and state grants, and Midtown Improvement District funds. The idea was first hatched way back in 2010, when a TSW design team was hired.

Midtown Alliance officials were once optimistic the project would be fully under construction by late 2016. Behind the scenes, however, a web of delays, dysfunction, and other messes involving the city’s procurement system under previous mayoral administrations was a significant hurdle.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens appointed a new procurement chief in 2022, and Midtown Alliance CEO and president Kevin Green has applauded the city’s revised procurement process as being more streamlined and sensible.

Courtesy of TSW

The complete-street overhaul will see non-drivers flowing south alongside car traffic in six to seven-foot bike lanes, protected by a system of raised planters and barriers at intersections. Trees and landscaping will be implemented as seasons and weather allow, and fresh asphalt will be laid near the end of construction, officials have said.

Early phases of construction removed and preserved historic Juniper Street trolley tracks that had been submerged through the area.

One block east, the 1.1-mile system of northbound bike lanes will similarly update Piedmont Avenue, stretching from Ponce de Leon Avenue up to 15th Street at Piedmont Park.

Here’s a closer look at precisely the section of Midtown the Juniper Street bike lanes and other changes will cover:

Scope of the one-way, southbound cycle track. Midtown Alliance