Wowza.  From the AJC…

Only a fraction of the city’s voters turned out on Tuesday, but they sent a big message: yes to two separate bonds that will chip away at the city’s billion-dollar infrastructure backlog. With all the votes counted, the bond initiative passed by a nearly 9-to-1 margin.

The first bond, worth $188 million, will be spent on transportation projects, such as bike lanes and street improvements. The second bond, about $64 million, will fund municipal buildings and recreation centers.

As reported previously, two big transportation items of the current list of projects – removing DeKalb Avenue’s reversible lane and making it more bike/pedestrian friendly, and also syncing traffic lights around the city.

Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

If you live in Decatur and commute regularly to downtown Atlanta, you will likely be interested in this.

In March, Atlantans will go to the polls to vote on a $250 million bond for infrastructure improvements around the city.  Though these projects all obviously fall outside the Decatur city limits, not surprisingly, many could impact the day-to-day of many commuting Decatur residents.

Of particular note, the bond list includes $2.5 million to remove the reversible lane on DeKalb Avenue.  Here’s the description for the project on Atlanta’s vast Infrastructure Map…

Complete Street improvements inclusive of milling and repaving, sidewalk and ADA ramp repair and installation, reversible lane removal and addition of bicycle facilities along DeKalb Av from MARTA Inman Park-Reynoldstown Station (Hurt St) to city limit.

Bike facilities?  What’s that?

A recent post on the Atlanta Bike Coalition website fills things in and reaches a bit further…

DeKalb Ave has been added to the list as a Complete Street. This includes bike lanes, turn lanes, and no reversible lane – big win! But this project shouldn’t stop in the middle at Inman Park – ask for it to be extended to connect with the Decatur Street bike lanes.

You may recall that Decatur and Atlanta jointly applied for a Federal TIGER grant last April to transform Howard and DeKalb Avenues into “Complete Streets”, which it didn’t receive in 2014.

Of course, there are dozens upon dozens of other projects on the docket if the bond passes the muster of Atlanta voters.  You can check them out HERE.  Other improvements around Decatur include the repaving of various Atlanta roads (College Avenue, Oakdale Road, North Ave) and a variety of traffic signal improvements.

Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

Check out this interesting resolution up for a vote at this evening’s Decatur City Commission meeting…

Whereas, the City of Decatur plans to partner with the City of Atlanta to submit the Atlanta-Decatur Complete Streets Initiative: Connecting the Region’s Workforce to Transit TIGER application. This Project would include complete street rebuilds on M L King, Jr Drive, Lee Street/Peters Street, and Decatur Street/DeKalb Avenue. Each corridor parallels one of the MARTA lines and is the primary connecting street between neighborhoods and their local MARTA station, but each is treacherous to pedestrian and bicycles. The project would include a complete street makeover for each corridor totaling over 11 miles of new sidewalks and trails, resurfaced roadway with improved lane configuration, street trees, new curbing, and pedestrian lighting; and,

Whereas, this project will directly connect thousands of low-income and transit-dependent residents to the 250,000+ jobs directly accessible by MARTA rail and will link downtown Decatur to downtown Atlanta via safe pedestrian, bicyclist and transit infrastructure; and,

Whereas, the City of Decatur will request $5,000,000 in funds to complete the Decatur portion of the project and will provide a 50% match of $2,750,000; and,

Now Therefore, Be It Resolved and it is Hereby Resolved by the Decatur City Commission that they support the submission of a grant proposal in the amount of $5,000,000 with a local match of $2,750,000 to the US Department of Transportation for the TIGER grant program for the purpose of completing the ATLANTA-DECATUR COMPLETE STREETS INITIATIVE.

Photo courtesy of James

Update – residents reporting that DeKalb Ave is still closed.

Lots of area residents got stuck trying to get to/from downtown Atlanta yesterday. This morning, the AJC has a pretty extensive report – and photos! – of the water main break that closed DeKalb Ave…

A major northeast Atlanta thoroughfare reopened Thursday night after a predawn water main break flooded the roadway.

The break, near the intersection of DeKalb Avenue and Elmira Place, was reported just before 6 a.m. Emergency repairs were completed around 8 p.m. and water service was restored.

But it’s not all over yet.

Crews will continue to repair the street Friday, resulting in single lane closures, authorities said.

Maria Saporta is quite correct when she notes that the main focus of reporting on T-SPLOST funding thus far has been on the big name projects, which make up 85% of total funding.  But what about the other 15% (approx. $1.1 billion), which will be divided up amongst the metro’s local communities?

Saporta reports that the City of Atlanta is talking about dividing its share of the $1.1 billion into three categories: “High Profile” projects, individual district projects and “opportunistic reserves”.  The floated DeKalb Avenue project would fall into the first category.  According to the article, upgrades for these “high profile projects” would include…

…pavement resurfacing, sidewalk repair and installation, streetscape improvements, lighting, bicycle facilities, pedestrian crossings, on-street parking and transit amenities.

There are obviously a lot of ifs and maybes before anything would happen, not least of which is the T-SPLOST passing in July, but it’s certainly nice to at least know about these things. Or maybe you don’t want to be teased/taunted with the info?

Either way, I’m checking with Decatur’s city staff to see if we already have a plan in place for how our chunk of the funding would be spent inside the city’s borders.  And how much that chunk would be!

From CL’s Thomas Wheatley…

And it’s legit: Beltline officials expect to begin construction this fall on a bike trail that would connect Piedmont Park to DeKalb Avenue.

Mayor Kasim Reed, city councilmembers and project officials this morning accepted two checks — each for $2.5 million — from Kaiser Permanente and the PATH Foundation on behalf of Sarah and Jim Kennedy at a scorching event along the Beltline’s northeast segment near the Masquerade. A project spokesman says the trail would open to walkers and cyclists next summer.

Nearly two years in the making, the trail project will connect the city’s most iconic greenspace and the Morningside, Ansley Park, Midtown, Poncey-Highland and Old Fourth Ward neighborhoods before ending at DeKalb Avenue.

Wheatley hopes the donations bring more attention to the Beltline project and perhaps even help secure more Federal funding in the future.

Map courtesy of Beltline.org

This was fun.

Atlanta police barricaded DeKalb Avenue, a busy thoroughfare through Atlanta’s east side, Monday evening after a broken fire hydrant spilled water for two hours with the temperature below freezing.

I also saw a pretty awesome ice sculpture on the edge of Woodruff Park this morning, created by another fire hydrant that had blown apart at some point overnight.

Stupid expanding ice.