It has been extremely gratifying seeing so many people enjoying the Eastside Trail. If you’ve already been there, you may have noticed that our work is not quite done yet. Tree plantings continue, and we’ve received a lot of questions about the two ends of the trail, at Irwin Street to the south, Monroe Drive to the north, and other street connections in between:

Improvements Planned for Irwin Street: The Eastside Trail currently ends at Irwin Street. ABI will install an “intersection warning” sign to alert trail users of the at-grade crossing with Irwin Street. A stop sign will be installed at the end of the trail so that users can observe traffic before either crossing the street onto the hiking trail, or re-enter the vehicle lanes. Trail users will need to be cautious when re-entering into the vehicle lanes or when crossing onto the interim hiking trail. This continuation of the Atlanta BeltLine interim hiking trail (from Irwin Street to Dekalb Ave) will be closed as the corridor is used for construction ingress/egress during the replacement of the Edgewood Bridge. Construction is currently scheduled to start in early 2013.

Improvements Planned for 10th and Monroe Intersection: The improved section of Eastside Trail ends at Monroe Dr. adjacent to Park Tavern and Piedmont Park. The City of Atlanta Public Works Dept. approved the design for traffic signal and pavement striping improvements for the intersection. Eastside trail users will be able to cross Monroe Dr. to Piedmont Park more easily with new pedestrian signals and a 28’ wide striped pedestrian crossing with new curbramps built into the sidewalks on either side of Monroe Dr. The traffic signals for the Virginia and 10thStreet intersections with Monroe will be re-timed and coordinated in anticipation of heavier pedestrian and bicyclist activity through the area. Construction on the improvement is slated to begin in early November and be completed by mid-December (weather permitting). While improvements will occur on all four “corners” of the intersection, we have requested that the contractor prioritize the interface between the Park Tavern corner and the Eastside Trail.

Asphalt Patching: Where the construction of the new trail interfaces with a dead-end street (ie.; Greenwood Ave.) or with a rear building parking lot (ie.; Urban Body Studios), the contractor will be patching the asphalt from the sawcut to granite curb or pavement slab as they finish their work.

Thank you for your continued support, enthusiasm and patience!