Federal grant will overhaul MLK Jr. Drive

Road to be friendlier for cyclists, walkers, vehicular traffiffic.

Atlanta has accepted a federal grant to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists who rely on a 7-mile stretch of a key east-west corridor.

Atlanta City Council members on Tuesday accepted a $2.67 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to make changes to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive from Northside Drive west to Fulton Industrial Boulevard. Changes planned include improved traffiffic signals, raised medians, new sidewalks, multiuse trails, updated pedestrian crossings, street lighting, bus shelters and public art displays.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Innovation Corridor Project is designed to make the street more welcoming to walkers, cyclists and vehicular traffiffic. The feds awarded the grant through its TIGER Discretionary Grant Program. This latest grant is in addition to the $10 million Atlanta received from the federal DOT in 2016 for the project.

The project also calls for gateway signage on the eastern and western sides of the corridor at two I-20 underpasses and I-285 overpasses, resurfacing and restriping along the roadway from Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard to Ollie Street, Florida Avenue to Barfifield Avenue and parts of Gordon Road and Delmar Lane. Users can also expect a new multiuse path and pedestrian amenities in front of Westview Cemetery; a linear park and multiuse paths on the north side of the roadway from Peyton Place to Lynhurst Drive; and raised medians, pedestrian islands, upgraded traffific signals and beacon signals from Fulton Industrial to Ollie Street.

The city expects the project will be completed by summer 2020.

According to the cit y’s project update for August, sidewalks, medians and granite curbing on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive are “substantially complete” between Northside Drive and Tattnall Street. Paving is planned on the drive between Northside and Ollie Street.

Crews are in the process of relocating utilities to new poles around Mozley Park, and utility relocation and drainage construction are underway at Fairfifield Curve between Florida and Barfifield avenues.