It’s official: Atlanta’s Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry is under construction

After today, the massive park project wrapping what could one day be a month’s worth of emergency drinking water for Atlanta will officially be closer to actualization.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is scheduled to lead the groundbreaking of Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry today, a green space which, upon completion, will span some 280 acres and surround a 2 billion-gallon reservoir of backup H2O.

Should the full vision be realized, the quarry-anchored park would be Atlanta’s largest.

Curbed Atlanta

The project’s first phase will include tidying up the site, completing survey work, addressing quarry access, and, among other things, restoring Grove Park Place, an overgrown residential area abutting the future park.

No timeline was specified in a city-issued release announcing the groundbreaking, which is schedule for 11 a.m. today.

In the waning days of 2017, the Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry made news when city officials released the most detailed renderings to date of what the transformative project (100 acres larger than Piedmont Park, eventually) could look like.

Back in 2016, the city’s aptly named Driller Mike began a $300 million tunnel-boring mission between the Chattahoochee River and Hemphill Water Treatment Plant that links to the quarry.

In related Westside news, Urban Creek Partners announced Wednesday that it has teamed with outdoor recreation company REI in an effort to get people adventuring around the developer’s 70-acre mixed-use proposal Quarry Yards.

Urban Creek Partners/Quarry Yards

The first phase of the Quarry Yards project calls for $400 million in mixed-use development, which is slated to include more than 850 new units, a 300-room hotel, and around 600,000 square feet of office and retail space, all on a 27-acre swath just south of the upcoming Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry.

The partnership with REI will bring outdoor classes, so locals and visitors can better acquaint themselves with the natural green space surrounding Quarry Yards, not to mention the recently opened Proctor Creek Greenway.

“This partnership will promote our vision for Quarry Yards that includes our focus on the outdoors and recreation,” said Jimmy Barry, of Urban Creek Partners, in a press release.

Activities will range from photography classes, cycling—including mountain biking—live music, “full-moon gatherings,” and more.

As developers noted, folks will be able to hop off the neighboring Bankhead MARTA Station and immerse themselves in the green landscape that allows Atlanta to keep calling itself “The City in a Forest.”