In anticipation of the FIFIA World Cup coming to the city in 2026, Atlanta City Council on Monday approved $120 million in infrastructure bonds for a massive makeover to the downtown neighborhood.
The money is slated to go toward 25 miles of street resurfacing, restriping 200 intersections, installing 150 new street lights and 14 miles of sidewalk repairs including additional ADA accessibility features — all on a tight two-year timeline.
But officials also view the work as a crucial step in long-term plans to revitalize the city’s center — not just prepare for visitors to flock to Atlanta’s stadiums and event venues.
“When we look 20 years out, one of the marks about whether Atlanta is going to be successful is whether or not tens of thousands of people call downtown home,” Council member Matt Westmoreland told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“I think part of that is making it a safe, well lit, walkable neighborhood, and this legislation is a really big step in that direction,” he said.
Credit: JOHN SPINK / AJC
Credit: JOHN SPINK / AJC
Elected officials said this is one of the largest — if not the largest — investment in downtown totaling an estimated $120 million. The biggest line items are more than $56 million for street resurfacing, more than $20 million for new or repaired sidewalks and more than $14 million for traffic signal upgrades.
But the ambitious goals add on to a long backlog of projects the Atlanta transportation department has for years struggled to finish.
“There’s a need to fast track a lot of the development work that’s happening with the Department of Transportation,” Atlanta’s Chief Financial Officer Mohamed Balla told council members during committee review of the legislation.
City Council also passed a resolution asking the department to provide officials with a list of outstanding Moving Atlanta Forward and Renew Atlanta/T-SPLOST projects with information on the money spent so far and total amount estimated to finish.
Westmoreland said the council already anticipated additional dollars toward staffing to speed up delivery.
Rebecca Serna, executive director of PropelATL, said that large-scale events — particularly those that draw international visitors who may be more inclined to walk or use mass transit — gives the city a chance to reconsider its transit infrastructure.
“The World Cup, like any major event coming to Atlanta, is an opportunity to think about how Atlanta’s get around every day, and how we can improve those systems in a way that benefits both visitors and people who live here,” she said.
A study by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce estimates some 300,000 unique visitors will come to Atlanta for the international soccer tournament. The legislation also calls for a $750,000 mobility plan to be submitted to FIFA.
“We can’t handle that volume of people,” Serna said. “If they all get rental cars, it’s just going to grind everything to a halt.”
City Council also passed an amendment Monday that added safety requirements to the project stipulations as part of city goals to reduce pedestrian and cyclist deaths.
Council member Amir Farokhi said during the meeting that the success of downtown Atlanta doesn’t just impact the city, but the entire southern region and that he believed the legislation could have been more ambitious.
“Some of the hesitation of the last two weeks has been driven not by the allocation of dollars to this footprint,” he said, “but that it’s an opportunity to do something pretty significant for downtown in a way that makes it a place where people want to be.”
“If people want to be there, developers will be there, housing will follow and we’ll see a bit of a resurgence to the Center City,” Farokhi said.
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