Project Update: Market Street Improvements

The City of Dalton is engaged in a number of improvement projects around town and from time to time, daltonga.gov will be posting updates on these projects so you can stay in the know on what’s going on around town. Today we’re updating the Market Street improvement project. This project, which is being broken up into two phases, is part of the city’s new vision for remaking the Walnut Avenue entry corridor. Phase 1 will feature streetscape improvements to Market Street including adding on street parking, crosswalks, brickwork and streetside trees, stormwater improvements, and other changes to the street to improve the appearance of the area and also the functionality of the roadway. Phase 2 will involve building a new connector roadway that will link Market Street with Shields Road creating a new east-west roadway to the south of Walnut Avenue to improve traffic flow in the area. Here’s the update:

A lot more goes into a road construction project than meets the eye. Before shovels go into the dirt, first a lot of ink has to go onto papers.

“For the first phase, we’re done with the design, now we’re working on getting the right of way currently,” said Megan Elliott, a project manager for the City of Dalton.

For a project to remake and re-imagine even a relatively short road like Market Street, the city has to first obtain rights of way and easements from a large number of property owners. The process can quickly become complicated.

“We have to have title exams and we have to look at who owns what property as we start to look through all of that information and look at what kind of cross-easements there might be for driveways, figure out if there are any liens or mortgages on the properties … once we get all of that pinned down, we start negotiations with the property owners and go from there,” Elliott said. “Once we get that preliminary work completed we have some formal documents, legal documents that we have to get taken care of and from there we get all of that closed out it’s kind of like a real estate transaction, once it’s all in the city’s name we can start letting out bids for construction for the project.”

As things stand now in the last of January 2022, the city is close to finishing right of way acquisition for the first phase of the Market Street project. From there, there is a bidding process for construction companies to take on the project. There are still two or three months of work left before ground will be broken on the project. But the hope is for shovels to be in the ground, so to speak, on the project during the spring.

“It will take two construction seasons probably [to finish] both phases, so this summer and next summer,” Elliott said. “Hopefully, between two and two and a half years we’ll have both phases of the project completed. Because we are already in the design stage of Phase 2, we should be able to get that part of the project rolling soon."

The streetscape improvements to Market Street should drive new growth in retail, restaurant service, and entertainment businesses in the area. The project will make the area more beautiful with brick pavers and new trees and create a more walkable district to encourage more foot traffic.  

“There will be brick work in the sidewalk so it will have a downtown look and feel to it once it’s all completed with the lighting and the brick and the street trees and things like that,” Elliott said. “We’ll have new signal mast arms at the intersection of Walnut Avenue and Market Street. There’s also going to be… a piece for GDOT that’s going to be a new right turn lane or a deceleration lane that comes off of Walnut Avenue onto Market Street from the interstate side.”

The project will hopefully kick start one of the city’s best untapped resources.

“it’s an exciting project overall because that is the first thing you see when you come into our community if you’re coming in on I-75. So, all of these connections will be helpful and be a good visual, aesthetic change to welcome people to the city in the future,” Elliott said. “There’s already been a lot of interest in these properties with this project and it can go hand in hand for revitalization and cleanup with the vacant properties.”