Atlanta’s Department of Transportation announced a pause on several construction projects around the city for the Fourth of July weekend today and laid out the ongoing work ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
ATLDOT Commissioner Solomon Caviness said construction will be paused from Thursday, July 3, at noon to Monday, July 7, at 9 a.m. so people can get around during the holiday weekend.
Caviness also laid out a progress update for some of the city’s ongoing construction projects. It’s part of a $120 million investment approved by the city in October 2024 into infrastructure upgrades around Atlanta, particularly across Downtown corridors.
ATLDOT aims to resurface 20 miles of streets, repair 11 miles of sidewalks, restripe 200 crosswalks and install up to 150 new streetlights. The city also aims to add 80 wheelchair ramps and signage, as well as wayfinding throughout the area.
“We want to make sure that our improvements are in line with equity, safety and mobility,” Caviness said. “And support our Vision Zero initiative to bring fatalities and serious injuries through [car] crashes down to zero by the year 2040.”
The Vision Zero Action Plan is a national nonprofit campaign to eliminate all traffic fatalities and injuries by creating safer streets. Atlanta’s traffic deaths peaked at 100 people in 2021 and have since shrunk by 23 percent.
It’s a push to improve a corridor littered with potholes, broken lights and crosswalks in need of a paint job. Once finished, the projects will help push for “multimodal” transit on foot, bicycles and scooters. Caviness said the list should be done by Spring 2026, in time for an estimated 300,000 people to pour into downtown Atlanta for eight FIFA World Cup matches.
The city also plans to open up the MLK and Ted Turner Viaduct reconnection project by mid-July. The road, originally built in 1922, has been closed for years due to “infrastructure “ issues. The steel and concrete deteriorated to a point where the city had to replace them entirely.
“It’s an important connector from our Downtown government district over to the entertainment and sports complex,” Caviness said.
Phase one started in 2019 and finished in 2022. The second phase of the project kicked off in October 2024. Once the bridge is open this month, Caviness said it will help to relieve traffic to and from the “complex,” including the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and State Farm Arena, into downtown. Eventually, the bridge will also connect the planned Centennial Yards overhaul to the city’s core.
“Ahead of next summer, we want to make sure that we have the most presentable downtown and the safest downtown possible,” Caviness said.
Timely update—AtlDOT confirms construction pauses from Thursday noon through Monday morning for the Fourth of July, then resumes work downtown ahead of next year’s big events.
20 miles of road resurfacing is not multimodal improvement. Connect the Benz to the BeltLine & our protected bike lanes if you want to make an impact.