A firm has been selected to design and engineer the latest segment of the Atlanta BeltLine park and trail system in Buckhead, starting this summer and lasting about two-and-a-half years, when construction might begin.

Heath & Lineback Engineers is the lead firm selected to design the Northeast Corridor Trail, according to Atlanta BeltLine Inc. It will partner with Perez Planning & Design, Site Solutions and various consultants on the $4 million planning effort.

An area beneath I-85 as it looks today at left, and as it may look after the BeltLine’s Northeast Corridor Trail is built there. (Atlanta BeltLine Inc.)

Heath & Lineback is well-known for planning parks and trails, including Brookhaven’s Peachtree Creek Greenway and a section of PATH400 that will connect Buckhead and Sandy Springs.

The Northeast Trail section of the BeltLine will run between Monroe Drive, where the Eastside Trail ends, and the Lindbergh MARTA Station. It will also connect other trail systems around I-85, including PATH400 and trails on the North Fork and South Fork of Peachtree Creek.

It’s is part of the larger BeltLine plan, which proposes 33 miles of multi-use trails, a 22-mile streetcar route and 2,000 acres of parks. The Northeast Trail would be the second BeltLine trail to be built in Buckhead following the completed Northside Trail near Piedmont Hospital. The Eastside Trail in Midtown and Westside Trail have also opened.

A map of a preliminary plan for the segment of the Northeast Trail that would run from Mayson Street to the Lindbergh MARTA Station, as shown in an Atlanta BeltLine Inc. presentation in February 2018.

Patrick Peters, Heath & Lineback’s project manager for the Northeast Trail, said in a press release that it will be a distinctive part of the BeltLine.

“The Northeast Trail has the potential to be the first section of the Atlanta BeltLine to cross active railroad tracks and I-85, and we are thrilled to have been chosen by ABI to design and engineer this project,” Peters said. “This trail will advance the vision of walking or biking from Memorial Drive, through Piedmont Park, and all the way to the Armour-Ottley district, PATH400 and MARTA’s Lindbergh station in Buckhead. And, just like the existing sections of the BeltLine, the trail will provide economic opportunities and greater connectivity.”

A community meeting about the new trail was held in Midtown earlier this year. For more information, see beltline.org.

John Ruch is an Atlanta-based journalist. Previously, he was Managing Editor of Reporter Newspapers.