There has been inaccurate reporting regarding the More MARTA Atlanta Program after a meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 25 between MARTA executives and the City of Atlanta Transportation Committee.
MARTA leadership notified the Committee that it had contracted HDR Inc. in 2022 to develop a dynamic financial model to account for changes in project costs, delivery dates, state and federal funding opportunities, and MARTA looked forward to providing updates to the Committee as soon as possible.
MARTA leadership clarified that it is working with the City of Atlanta and Atlanta BeltLine Inc (ABI) to close remaining budget gaps that were identified at the start of the program. In 2016, the More MARTA Atlanta Program originally consisted of 70 projects estimated to cost approximately $12 billion. After two years of extensive meetings with the City of Atlanta, ATL, stakeholders, and public input and analysis, the MARTA Board adopted 17 projects at a cost of $2.7 billion which was further memorialized in the IGA that was approved by the MARTA Board, City Council and executed by Mayor Bottoms in November of 2019.
In the coming weeks, MARTA’s financial model will be completed and used to evaluate project sequence, schedule, scope, and funding sources in order to take advantage of state and federal funding opportunities while delivering transit projects for Atlanta residents as quickly as possible.
Attached is the original approved project sequencing list and project delivery process.
The timing, scope, and funding sources of these 17 projects may be adjusted, based on the changing conditions and input from the Program Governance Committee and stakeholders. At Wednesday’s meeting, MARTA leadership committed to update the Committee on the process in March and communicating those decisions to the public.
MARTA has not made a decision to drop any of the 17 projects approved by the MARTA Board in 2019. In the coming weeks, we expect to announce, in partnership with the City of Atlanta, a reprioritized list of projects that are tiered and based on current inflationary realities and other factors. The first tier would be the list of projects MARTA will focus on delivering within an acceptable timeframe. The remaining projects in other tiers will continue to advance as MARTA’s financial model is refined further and funding gaps are closed.
Click here to view More MARTA Atlanta sequencing and delivery presentation