State transportation officials said there are sections of the Downtown Connector pavement that are crumbling earlier than expected. According to CBS46, Georgia’s Department of Transportation spent $18 million to pave the interstate through downtown Atlanta in 2008. It used asphalt that officials estimated would last at least 10 years, but already, there is evidence that some of the asphalt is not holding up due to traffic volume and weather. GDOT said it will begin patching the areas of the interstate that have deteriorated sometime this summer.
The Georgia House of Representatives has approved legislation that could help speed up completion of the Atlanta Beltline. According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the bill would let Atlanta BeltLine Inc. use public-private partnerships to finance and build projects along the 22-mile loop, including hiking trails, sidewalks, streetscaping, bike lanes and transit facilities. The Senate must approve the bill before the end of the Legislative session later this week.
The Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs today announced the recipients of the inaugural Neighborhood Arts Grant program. A new initiative of Contracts for Arts Services, the Neighborhood Arts Grant program was created to ensure that City of Atlanta investments in arts projects expand across the city by directly funding NPUs or Neighborhood Associations. Projects include the expansion of community-created public art installations in the Beecher Donnelley community, a mural in Westview and a public concert in NPU-T. This year’s recipients are:
South Atlanta Civic League, NPU-Y
Fourth Ward Neighbors, NPU-M
Historic Westside Cultural Arts Council, NPU-L
Mozley Park Neighbors Association, NPU-K
NPU-T/Music in the Park, NPU-T
Beecher Donnelley Community Association, NPU-E
West End Neighborhood Development Inc., NPU-T
Westview Community Organization, NPU-T
East Atlanta Community Association, NPU-W
Reynoldstown Civic Improvement League, NPU-N
Adair Park Today, Inc., NPU-X
Can anyone confirm the timing of the Connector paving? It might have started in some small way in 2008 but it was way more recent that most of it was done. I’m thinking 2010-2011. 14th St bridge re-opened in Sept 2009 and I thought most of the paving was done after that, no? Would make it even worse that it already had problems.