Livable Buckhead, the organization spearheading construction of PATH400, says it now has enough funding to complete the original 5.2 miles of multiuse path planned to run along Ga. 400 from south Buckhead to Atlanta’s border with Sandy Springs.
The Atlanta Regional Commission has allocated $6.8 million in federal funds for PATH400. An additional $240,000 to design the extension north to Sandy Springs was also allocated.
This funding adds to $5 million in TSPLOST funds previously approved by Atlanta City Council.
“Based on current construction estimates, this funding should be enough to finish the original 5.2 miles of the greenway,” Denise Starling, the executive director of Livable Buckhead, said in a press release.
PATH400 is multiuse trail that is planned to run along Ga. 400 from the south Buckhead to Sandy Springs. It was originally planned to end near Atlanta’s border with Sandy Springs at Loridans Drive, but a northern extension is planned to be built through Sandy Springs’ Pill Hill medical center as part of the I-285/Ga. 400 interchange reconstruction. A section has been proposed to connect the original path and the extension.
Starling wrote in a newsletter that there a few final steps before they actually receive the funds, which will come from the Federal Highway Administration, but the steps should be completed by February.
“This funding has lots of strings – the most significant of which being they are SLOW because they have a lot more red tape with them,” Starling wrote. “This means it will take longer to get the project done, but for this kind of money I think it just might be worth it to sit still and look pretty.”
ARC allocated the funding in its transportation improvement program project list, which must go through a 30-day public comment period that begins Dec. 18. Following that, the list must be approved by the ARC and Georgia Regional Transit Authority boards before it becomes final, a press release announcing the funding said.
The $240,000 would be used to design the “missing link” between the end of the original PATH400 at Loridans Drive and Sandy Springs.
The $6.8 million in federal funds is in addition to $5 million in TSPLOST funds that was approved for PATH400 in November.
“Getting this support from Atlanta City Council and Atlanta Regional Commission underscores PATH400’s value as a critical piece of the region’s transportation infrastructure,” Starling said in the press release. “We may need to do additional fundraising in the future to support programming on PATH400 or to add new features, but the TSPLOST and TIP funds are a huge win and we’re thrilled to get them.”
There is no such thing as “federal funds”. All government spending, federal, state, and local, comes either from “donations” from a local businesses or citizens or from borrowed money, requiring future payback by the same sources.