Category: Construction

Paving of N. McDonough and Other Downtown Streets Begins Today

In a race to avoid paving during the looming school year (1 week away! Where can I get 20 Ticonderoga pencils?!), the City of Decatur is planning to pave a bunch of the under-construction streets of downtown this week, including the city’s biggest street project of late, North McDonough.

Other streets due for the ol’ black asphalt makeover include the loop at Barry Street, N. Candler and E Howard (but not Pate Street!  Gravel4life!) and the railroad intersections at N. McDonough and S.Candler.  Say what you want about Decatur construction, that’s some serious paving coordination right there.

The Extreme Makeover website says that you should expect lane closures on North McDonough and the railroad intersections during the paving over the next 2-3 days, but two-way traffic will remain open.   Access to Barry, N. Candler and E Howard will stilll be extremely limited, but what else is new.  đź™‚

Paving was supposed to begin yesterday, but I didn’t get this post up in time so they delayed it.  Just kidding.  They say it was due to rain or something.

Almost there!

Old N. McDonough construction photo courtesy of DM

At Long Last! Final Paving Work Begins on East Howard, N. Candler and Barry St

Huzzah! I bet this news will make a lot of local residents and business owners happy.

The impact

The final stage of work on Phase 2 of the Downtown Decatur Storm Drainage Improvements project is expected to start on Wednesday, July 12. This includes milling, rebuilding, and repaving the streets in the project area, including North Candler Street, East Howard Avenue, and Barry Street.

The details

Phase 2 of the Downtown Decatur Storm Drainage Improvements includes replacement of undersized and deteriorated storm drainage facilities and will reduce or eliminate frequent flooding on private properties in the Old Decatur neighborhood. During construction, the work was expanded to include renewal of a failing sanitary sewer system in the same community. This project was originally planned almost 40 years ago, replaces some of the oldest infrastructure in metro Atlanta, and will complete major planned improvements to the upper Peavine section of the downtown drainage system. Construction commenced in July, 2016, and was expected to take up to 12 months.

How to manage

Vehicular access will be limited and on-street parking will not be available on the affected streets during the work. Pedestrian access will remain open throughout the project area. The street and paving improvements are expected to take about 2 weeks, weather permitting.

The work area is shown below. Click for larger view.

Hampton Inn Construction To Begin

The latest Decatur Focus announces that the new hotel on Clairemont is on its way…

Downtown Decatur is getting another hotel. Anyone who has tried to book a room recently at the Decatur Marriott Courtyard knows how frequently it is full. Decatur’s proximity to downtown Atlanta, Emory and CDC, easy access to the Atlanta airport on MARTA and the ability to walk to a number of local retail and restaurant options continue to attract a growing number of visitors to our city.

The new 132-room Hampton Inn and Suites will allow Decatur to host more medium-size conferences at the city-owned conference center. The conference center has enough meeting space but there aren’t enough available hotel rooms to allow it to be used to its full capacity. Building permits for the new hotel have been approved and construction should begin this month.

City arborist Kay Evanovich worked closely with the hotel owner to arrange to have 17 trees relocated from the hotel site to Glenlake Park. Next time you visit the park, look for the new grove of trees located in the upper area of the park near the soccer field.

Detour Alert! CSX Will Rebuild Downtown Rail Crossings Mid-June

EXTREME DETOUR everyone. This should be a fun time for Decatur commuters.

That said, we should also take the long view and remember that this rebuild is a LONG time coming. (I have posts on this dating back to at LEAST 2009!  Man. I’m getting old.)

From the city’s Decatur Makeover website…

Details are still being finalized but now’s the time to start planning ahead: Effective the morning of Monday, June 19, CSX will begin rebuilding their crossings at Candler and McDonough Streets.

Work will continue uninterrupted until its completion which is projected to take roughly seven days. Both intersections will be closed and will remain closed until the work is finished.

A detour map will be posted here during the week of June 12 so stay tuned.

Project details

This collective project, including rail crossings at both McDonough and Candler, will significantly improve accessibility and safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, further encouraging those who live in Winnona Park, the McDonough-Adams-Kings Highway community, and other neighborhoods south of the CSX rail corridor to walk and bike into downtown Decatur.

 The improvements will provide gentler slopes on the north side of both crossings resulting in an accessible path for persons in wheelchairs or those using strollers, and a much safer route located outside the railroad crossing gates for pedestrians and bicyclists. Presently, pedestrians and bicyclists have to share the roadway with vehicles at these crossings.

In addition to improvements at the crossings, there will now be new pedestrian crosswalks where none presently exist — on the east side of both intersections and just north of the Candler crossing connecting to the sidewalk along the old Depot property.

Finally, improved vehicular mobility is also a project priority. Both crossings will include new traffic signals on both sides which will allow protected left turns on all legs of the two crossings.

You can view the schematics in the original post.

Photo courtesy of Joel

Periodic Commerce Drive Lane Closures Start Today

From the Decatur Extreme Makeover website…

AMLI Development will begin underground utility improvements necessary for the Callaway property development on Commerce Drive beginning Tuesday morning, May 30. These will require the periodic closing of single vehicle lanes on Commerce south of West Trinity Place during a roughly two week period.

How to manage

Two-way vehicle traffic will generally be maintained during the work, though flagman/directional efforts may cause minor delays. All sidewalks are to remain open.

More North McDonough Overnight Closures This Week

Blame the continued inconvenience on whoever covertly installed underground utilities along N. McDonough and didn’t mark them!

From the Decatur Makeover website…

Our last two rounds of temporary closures on North McDonough both encountered unmarked underground utilities, delaying completion and requiring a third round to complete the work. Accordingly, North McDonough Street will again be closed overnight between Trinity Place and East Maple Street beginning Sunday, April 30, and continuing each night until our anticipated completion by the morning of Friday, May 5.

As before, each temporary closure will begin at 11:00pm and end the following morning at 6:00am. Assuming no further complications, everything’s expected to finally be completed with this round.

This work will ultimately result in a new storm drainage system as part of the North McDonough streetscape improvements.