When MARTA built the Oakland City station in southwest Atlanta in 1984, officials installed a shaft with plans for an elevator at a later date.
More than three decades later, that elevator is on the way.
“MARTA is currently in the process of putting all specifications and requirements in order so we can launch a procurement to install an elevator in that station to better serve our patrons,” agency spokeswoman Stephany Fisher told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a statement.
MARTA decided to pull the trigger on the project now because of a new senior living community near the station.
“One reason a second elevator wasn’t originally installed (was) because until recently the back side of the station (at the Murphy Avenue entrance) got little use,” Fisher said in the statement.
Gateway Capitol View, the senior community, has changed that, according to officials.
To be clear, the Oakland City station has always had an operable elevator. It is accessible through the main entrance.
However, the lack of a second elevator frustrated riders such as Gwendolyn Bell, who relies on a walker.
Bell said she could not access the train platform from the Murphy Avenue side because there was no elevator, Channel 2 Action News reported.
“That is not convenient for people who are handicapped,” she told the news station. “There’s no way I can pick this (walker) up and walk those stairs.”
The goal is to have the second elevator installed by the summer, Fisher said.
It will cost about $1.1 million, which is roughly the same amount it would have cost to finish the elevator in 1984, according to MARTA officials.
The money, Fisher said, will come from city sales tax proceeds.
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