ATLANTA TRANSIT (Marta, Beltline, Peachtree Streetcar, LovJoy Commuter, etc...)

[ESysyn]

Originally Posted by montydawg

Because the footprint of all the platforms and elevators and tracks are actually pretty large, and when they built the original stations, they were not built with foundations in them for high rises. Peachtree center is unique in that it was mined into the granite mantle, thus it didn’t disturb the existing high rises above. Hopefully in a few years the economics line up and they can reconstruct arts center with high rises, however I would guarantee the area with tracks and platforms won’t actually have any significant construction directly over it to avoid disturbing the station operations. In the 1970s when all this was designed, atlanta was much smaller than it is today, so it didn’t make sense to build in implements for high rise foundations into the stations.

If I remember correctly, from looking through some of the planning documents, as well as old news paper articles, a few stations were built to support highrise construction. Lenox Station and North Avenue stations are great examples of this, since North Avenue was built while the [then known as] AT&T midtown center was being constructed; and Lenox station had Resurgens Plaza built atop it just 4 years after the opening of Lenox Station in 1984.

Many stations were built too be able to accomadate the construction of buildiings on top:

• Lenox (as mentioned above)
• Lindbergh (you can see existing pilings drilled for non existent collumns from platfom level)
• Sandy Springs
• all of the stations in the midtown tunnel
• Vine City
• Ashby
• possibly medical center, and one or two others

Most of this info was gathered thru browsing through the GSU archives

[smArTaLlone]

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/...-response.html

MARTA is moving forward with its transformation of the Five Points station, despite a request from Mayor Andre Dickens to pause the controversial project.

In a June 6 letter to MARTA CEO Collie Greenwood, Dickens asked the transit agency to hold off on the $230 million overhaul to its Downtown rail hub until the completion of an audit on the taxpayer-funded transit expansion known as More MARTA Atlanta. Axios Atlanta first reported the contents of the letter.

“Given the significance of the insights expected from this report, I am requesting that MARTA temporarily halt the project until we are in receipt of the final report and engage in subsequent discussions together to determine the best possible path forward for MARTA and the City of Atlanta,” said Dickens, adding the report is expected to arrive in late July.

In a June 10 response to Dickens, Greenwood did not agree to a pause.

The sales tax revenue generated for the program is allocated between bus operations and capital projects, requiring “routine reconciliation and adjustment” to the agency’s accounts, he said.

“Our internal review suggests the amount due to be moved to the capital reserve is approximately $9 million,” Greenwood wrote.

“Without benefit of seeing the preliminary findings and relying on CFO Balla’s memo that the preliminary findings of the audit suggest a higher amount, the appropriate correction is simply an accounting function, not a reason to significantly alter the course of the More MARTA capital priorities we have mutually agreed to advance,” he continued.

[newuserbuckhead]

It's disappointing that they are still moving forward with this project and the cost of it is just sooo astronomically high...

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by newuserbuckhead

It's disappointing that they are still moving forward with this project and the cost of it is just sooo astronomically high...

And kind of dreary looking in that last render with the gray panels

[shivtim]

More groups calling on MARTA to halt their renovation plan at the Five Points station. Central Atlanta Progress & Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (ADID) ask MARTA to keep Five Points open and reconsider design.




Via Patrick Quinn

[montydawg]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

And kind of dreary looking in that last render with the gray panels

I think it looks great. It will be a good ‘face of Marta’, being visible to many visitors of Atlanta. I think outside impressions of Atlanta are important since it promotes investment in the city.

Those grey ‘panels’ are actually shadows

[Julien]

Originally Posted by newuserbuckhead

It's disappointing that they are still moving forward with this project and the cost of it is just sooo astronomically high...

......but it will be through in ONLY 1500 days or so.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by montydawg

Those grey ‘panels’ are actually shadows

Look closer. Referring to the wall paneling. The canopy, I think I can be convinced on. But that techno dystopia gray panelling I can't man. Looks like a video game.

[KAY141]

https://images.app.goo.gl/VMTzkBtYitMYZ672A finally some images of the new CQ400 trains

[montydawg]

Originally Posted by KAY141

https://images.app.goo.gl/VMTzkBtYitMYZ672A finally some images of the new CQ400 trains

The document also said that the first rail car is scheduled for Q4 2024 for testing, and Q4 2025 for revenue service

[smArTaLlone]

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marta...member_desktop

[Julien]

Just an update. Waymo is still "testing" in ATL. I keep seeing them often. Hope they will be in service before WC (whatever that stands for).


Tesla FSD challenging Waymo.


And here is downtown Saturday morning.

[smArTaLlone]

MARTA has been awarded $25 million for construction of the South DeKalb Transit Hub through the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Buses and Bus Facilities Program.

The approximately 2500 square foot multimodal hub will serve four high ridership bus routes bordering Georgia’s 4th and 5th Congressional Districts: Route 15 (Candler Road), Route 186 (Rainbow Way), Route 74 (Flat Shoals), and Route 9 (Boulevard/Tilson Road).

[numacs]

Well, this is disappointing. I thought if anybody could pull this off, Dan Cathy could. Why/how do cities like Boston and Dallas pull off innovative projects like this, but we just seem to flounder about ad nauseam?!?!

Dan Cathy suspends plans for Midtown connector park over expressway
https://saportareport.com/dan-cathy-...eorgiapolitics

[montydawg]

The stitch has more benefit and new development potential. The GT project has very little land left (outside of school owned land) which could be developed and I believe would be less visible to the city as a whole compared to the stitch. We can’t have 3 highway capping projects canabalizing each other

[newuserbuckhead]

Originally Posted by numacs

Well, this is disappointing. I thought if anybody could pull this off, Dan Cathy could. Why/how do cities like Boston and Dallas pull off innovative projects like this, but we just seem to flounder about ad nauseam?!?!

These are three vastly different projects. Dallas is a single block cap, that's all. Boston was tunnels paid for by the feds. This project is proposed as multiple blocks, much larger than Dallas. The big difference between Dallas and Atlanta is what's on both sides of the 'project'. Dallas has offices and private property. While Atlanta has Tech on one side. Tech doesn't really want/need this project.

[RocketSurgeon]

Originally Posted by numacs

Well, this is disappointing. I thought if anybody could pull this off, Dan Cathy could. Why/how do cities like Boston and Dallas pull off innovative projects like this, but we just seem to flounder about ad nauseam?!?!

The project in Boston took almost 40 years and is famously one of the biggest planning failures in history. I'm not sure that's something to envy.

[bryantm3]

I think they're backing out because it's more expensive and less practical than they thought. Cause the interstate is *above* the surrounding area at 3rd street. What they really would have to do to get the effect they desire is to dig it out and that's very expensive. In the short term they can convert more bridges into 5th Street. This is what they need to go for... Because GDOT is going to have to remove exit ramps and dig a lower grade path through midtown if they really want to do a cap like they have done in other cities.

And if we're doing that, why not just get rid of 75 AND 85 south of Peachtree Creek and turn a lot of that area into a park? They never should have put those roads through there to begin with. Those rock outcroppings are amazing. I am personally fine with removing all the interstate that goes inside the beltline...

[montydawg]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

What they really would have to do to get the effect they desire is to dig it out and that's very expensive. In the short term they can convert more bridges into 5th Street.

This is very different than Boston. The interstate will not be lowered at all, and they are just capping the connector. Also, the big dig issues seemed to stem from cement trucks not dumping their old cement before refilling the trucks, and the old cement didn’t bond well and allowed leaking of the groundwater above. The big dig was much more complex. The Atlanta area plan had the park elevated in the area where the highway was above ground level.

[GeorgiaPeanuts]

Yes even in the render you can see shadows in areas where the park was elevated above the surrounding.