Spirit of Partnership Marks Ga. 400 Bridge Ceremony

The long-awaited reconnection of Buckhead took a big step forward Wednesday, with the ceremonial groundbreaking for the pedestrian bridge over Ga. 400.

The highway's extension through Buckhead 23 years ago divided the community, with the bridge project promised for the future to bring the community back together. The future arrived Wednesday afternoon, greeted by a few shovelfuls of dirt, joyously tossed.

The MARTA-managed construction project, which will connect Tower Place Drive and Stratford Road and improve access to the Buckhead MARTA Station, is scheduled to open in late 2013. Representatives of the several organizations that joined forces to get the project off the drawing board to actually beginning stressed that it will make Buckhead a more walkable community and generate multi-use developments, which already flourish in the area.

President Sam Massell, who pushed for the Ga. 400 extension bitterly opposed by the North Buckhead community, celebrated the Ga. 400 bridge's launch along with Buckhead Community Improvement District Treasurer Charles Ackerman, whose Ackerman and Co. owns the property where the bridge will begin on Stratford. CEO and General Manager Beverly Scott and other speakers cited Massell's determination over the years that the reuniting of Buckhead would one day happen. Ackerman was cited for his longtime support of the bridge project.

Along with Scott, other speakers included Buckhead CID Chairman David Allman, MARTA Board Chair Fredrick L. Daniels Jr., Region 4 Federal Transit Administration chief Dr. Yvette G. Taylor, Buckhead CID Executive Director Jim Durrett, State Road and Toll Authority Executive Director Gena L. Evans and city Chief Operating Officer Duriya Farooqui.

Allman, the president of Regent Properties, presented the most expansive vision of the $24 million project, seeing it as completing the Ga. 400 corridor's transportation potential, as well as encouraging MARTA use and bringing more people into Buckhead mixed-use development for business, dining and entertainment.

The project "opens up millions of square feet," he said. And, "Folks who don't think about using MARTA will now have a walkable solution to make that happen."

That won't occur until November 2013. But after 23 years of waiting, that seems very near.

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