MARTA Selects Engineering Firm for its Streetcar East Extension Final Design

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ATLANTA – MARTA announced its selection of an architecture and engineering firm for its final design of the Streetcar East Extension.

Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority has selected HDR, an architecture and engineering firm, to complete the design for the Streetcar East Extension. HDR has experience with streetcar projects in over 30 cities across North America.

The project is estimated to cost around $230 million and paid for through the More MARTA Atlanta half-penny sales tax. Construction should begin in 2025 with service starting in 2028. 

Carrie Rocha, Chief Capital Officer for MARTA, commented on the project that “MARTA is keenly focused on delivering the nine priority projects identified in the recent resequencing process by 2028 . . . Moving into final design is a critical milestone for this project.”

MARTA finalized alignment for a two-mile extension with five stops “along Edgewood Avenue, Randolph Street, Auburn Avenue, and Irwin Street to the Atlanta Beltline, then turns north to Ponce City Market.”

Clyde Higgs, President and CEO of Atlanta Beltline, Inc., stated the company’s excitement “to continue to partner with MARTA and the City of Atlanta on this priority project to fulfill the promise of high-quality transit on the Atlanta Beltline and bring more accessibility to all. . . We look forward to additional community conversations around the Streetcar design as it progresses toward final design.”

HDR is commited to exceeding MARTA’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) goal of 26%, with their own goal of 30%.

Other transit projects, such as the Cleveland Avenue and Metropolitan Parkway arterial rapid transit projects, are expected to start construction later this year.