Local Affairs
Construction crews began work Monday, Oct. 26, on the Cleveland-Metropolitan Arterial Rapid Transit project, the faster bus service MARTA is building with the City of Atlanta on two of its busiest corridors. For riders who commute along Metropolitan Parkway and Cleveland Avenue, the first visible effect is a set of temporary stop closures, including the northbound Route 95 stop at the north entrance of Atlanta Technical College.
MARTA describes the project, delivered through the More MARTA program, as the Atlanta region’s first arterial rapid transit, or ART, service. Its project page lists expected completion in 2028.
What riders face now
Bus service continues during construction, but MARTA says phased stop closures will be needed along Routes 78 and 95 in both the City of Atlanta and the City of East Point. As of the agency’s rider alert, three stops were closed: Route 95 northbound Stop #137056 at the north entrance for Atlanta Technical College; Route 95 northbound Stop #137074 at Metropolitan Parkway and St. Johns Avenue, in front of the Dollar Tree; and Route 78 eastbound Stop #158084 at Cleveland Avenue and Bayard Street in East Point.
MARTA tells riders to use the closest open stop to board and exit. The agency estimates construction will last about two months at each stop, with crews moving along the corridor in phases. Riders and drivers should also expect intermittent sidewalk closures, temporary stop relocations and short-term traffic impacts. MARTA says it will give advance notice of impacts and that access to homes and businesses will be maintained throughout.
Students, staff and workers who rely on Route 95 to reach the Atlanta Technical College campus are among the first affected, so checking the closure list before a class or shift is worth the extra minute while the work moves along the parkway.
What the finished lines are meant to do
The Cleveland Avenue ART will follow most of today’s Route 78, running from East Point Station to Jonesboro Road and dropping the current loop around Browns Mill Golf Course for a more direct path. The Metropolitan Parkway ART will cover the highest-ridership segment of Route 95, linking West End Station to Cleveland Avenue. Both connect to the Red and Gold rail lines, at West End in the north and East Point in the south.
MARTA lists three features that set ART apart from a regular local route. Buses will run in the same lanes as other traffic, but transit signal priority at key intersections is designed to help them move faster and stay on schedule. Buses are planned to arrive about every 15 to 20 minutes. And the service will make fewer stops than a local route, with larger shelters offering better lighting, real-time arrival information, seating, concrete pads, bike racks and, where applicable, solar panels.
The agency says the corridors run through communities with a higher-than-average share of transit-dependent residents. Key destinations it names include Atlanta Technical College, Atlanta Metropolitan State College, Citi Center Shopping Center, MET Atlanta, Wellstar East Point Health Center, the Cleveland Avenue Branch Library, the Metropolitan Library and the Atlanta BeltLine.
A delayed start
The project has been years in the making. According to MARTA’s timeline, design was completed in August 2023 and the first invitation to bid went out in September 2023, but the single bid received that November was deemed non-responsive. MARTA and the City of Atlanta then added sidewalk improvements to make the job more attractive to bidders, pushing the start back from fall 2023. A second invitation to bid was issued in May 2025, bids closed that September, and MARTA awarded the construction contract to BRTU Construction in December 2025. An administrative notice to proceed followed in January 2026, and the site notice to proceed for both cities came this month.
MARTA’s materials do not give a contract value or the number of construction workers the contractor will employ, and the agency has not published opening dates for individual stops. Its project page remains the place to check for updated closures as crews move down each corridor.
Sources
- MARTA, “Cleveland Avenue and Metropolitan Parkway Arterial Rapid Transit (ART),” project page, accessed October 30, 2026. https://itsmarta.com/cleveland-metropolitan-ART.aspx
- Metro Atlanta CEO, “MARTA Begins Construction on Cleveland-Metropolitan Arterial Rapid Transit (ART),” October 29, 2026. https://metroatlantaceo.com/news/2026/10/marta-begins-construction-cleveland-metropolitan-arterial-rapid-transit-art/
- Mass Transit, “MARTA begins construction on Cleveland-Metropolitan ART project,” October 28, 2026. https://www.masstransitmag.com/bus/infrastructure/news/55414951/metropolitan-atlanta-rapid-transit-authority-marta-marta-begins-construction-on-cleveland-metropolitan-art-project
Featured photo: MARTA bus 2346, a 2004 New Flyer D35LF, operating on the 95 Metropolitan Parkway route at its West End Station terminus, Feb. 23, 2021. Photo: R32s on the E Train, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped from the original.
