Piedmont Atlanta Hospital has started construction to widen Collier Road where it intersects with Peachtree Road.
The work, coming at a cost of $3.6 million, which is being funded by Piedmont, is expected to be completed early-2020.
This project will add a second left-turn lane from Collier Road east-bound to Peachtree Road north-bound.
Sidewalks around the hospital will be expanded, and the “curve” for drivers turning right onto Collier from Peachtree will be softened.
It is the hospital’s effort to improve traffic flow as part of the ongoing Piedmont Atlanta Tower construction project.
Piedmont Atlanta Hospital deeded almost an acre of land to the City of Atlanta for the lane-widening.
The 0.9 acres of land is appraised at $900,000.
Lanes on Collier Road will be closed to vehicular traffic, tentatively, from Sept. 3 to Sept. 9 and also from Oct. 25 to 31.
The sidewalk on the north side of Collier (the Piedmont side) will be closed from September 2019 through January 2020.
The project falls in line with the BeltLine Overlay District Standards, which seeks to promote, among other goals, to facilitate safe, pleasant and convenient pedestrian and bicycle circulation and minimize conflict between pedestrians and alternative transit modes.
“In addition to easing congestion and improving traffic flow in the area, this project will allow more safe space for pedestrians to walk,” Patrick M. Battey, M.D., CEO of Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, Wednesday said in a press release.
“At a hospital where we have nearly 280,000 outpatient encounters and more than 50,000 emergency department visits a year, this project not only will benefit our patients but also the entire Atlanta community as a whole.”
Piedmont, through its contractor Brasfield & Gorrie, is performing the construction on behalf of the City of Atlanta, which has the responsibility for managing and maintaining Collier Road, and the Georgia Department of Transportation, which has the same responsibilities for Peachtree.
The Piedmont Atlanta Tower, which will house up to 408 beds and will have 13 new operating rooms, is scheduled to open to patients in late summer 2020.
The tower was made possible in part through a $75 million gift from The Marcus Foundation.
One Response
It sounds great. However, I still wish they would develop the plan further. Around 50 years ago, I read a book named, Streets for People. Ever since, I’ve often why some roads were so ugly. I would rather pay a little more tax money & get a nice road for walking/driving/biking. Peachtree Rd around the Lenox area is one of the few “nice” roads in metro Atlanta. Why can’t we have more similar projects? This is a little start, I guess.