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Decatur’s mile-long Complete Street conversion has broken ground Josh Green Wed, 08/27/2025 - 08:24

A people-friendly, traffic-calming measure that’s been in City of Decatur’s pipeline for the better part of a decade is officially moving forward.

Work kicked off this month on the West Howard Avenue Cycle Track and Traffic Calming Improvements project between the southern fringes of Downtown Decatur and Atlanta’s city limits, city officials report.

Infrastructure and sidewalk work is underway now along a majority of the roughly one-mile route. It stretches from Commerce Drive (near Decatur High School) to the city’s western limits at Paden Circle (along the northern edge of East Lake MARTA station).

View of planned West Howard Avenue changes, looking east toward Downtown Decatur. City of Decatur/AtkinsRéalis Group Inc.

Extent of the roughly one-mile project, spanning from the Atlanta/Decatur line in the west (at left) to the doorstep of Decatur High School. City of Decatur/Landis Evans + Partners

The project has precipitated the demise of Decatur’s colorful—and infamously shabby—plastic street planters. The divisive, temporary traffic-calming measure gained enough notoriety to influence elections and grace T-shirts, bumper stickers, and yard signs around Decatur, especially during pandemic years. (The planters were recently removed and auctioned off, for as much as $175 per box.)

Decatur’s current Complete Street conversion builds on the 2017 Reimagine West Howard Avenue planning initiative, with a goal of permanently remaking the four-lane thoroughfare into an inviting, two-lane neighborhood street.

The intent is to slow vehicle speeds and boost safety for bicyclists, pedestrians, and anyone else not traveling by car.

Only planter-shaped stains remain on West Howard Avenue where the temporary and controversial/iconic traffic-calming measures once sat. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

West Howard Avenue will also be repaved, with landscaped islands added and a two-way cycle track installed along the CSX railroad right-of-way. According to city officials, a separate landscaping initiative will begin after roadway work wraps to lend the corridor a parkway feel and functionality. Expect native tree canopies in the landscaped islands, native pollinator plants, and more shade trees installed along the popular PATH trail next door.

The contract for the $1.87 million project—funded by Decatur’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST I)—went to Marietta-based Blount Construction Company.

The city’s timeline calls for construction to take roughly seven months, or until early spring. West Howard Avenue will be shrunk to two lanes for the duration of the project, and lane configurations are expected to shift multiple times.

Where infrastructure work has begun on West Howard Avenue near East Lake MARTA station. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

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Decatur's mile-long Complete Street conversion has broken ground

Decatur's mile-long Complete Street conversion has broken ground