Cost of pedestrian bridge linking downtown to stadium grows

When Atlanta city officials requested funding for a pedestrian bridge over Northside Drive more than a year ago, they insisted the project would cost no more than $12.8 million and that it had nothing to do with the Falcon’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

But at the council’s Transportation Committee meeting earlier this week, Katrina Taylor-Parks, deputy chief of staff to Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, requested that the committee approve an additional $12.3 million in funding quickly because of next year’s NFL Super Bowl, which will be played at Mercedes-Benz.

“It is time sensitive,” Taylor-Parks said at the committee meeting. “You know Atlanta is planning on hosting a huge event in early 2019, actually several.”