ATLANTA — Frustrations continue to mount for residents who use sections of Lavista and Cheshire Bridge roads in Atlanta after recent fires have shut down stretches of both roadways.
This has been causing delays and detours for months. One of the areas impacted is in front of The Reserve at Lavista Walk apartments, and residents we spoke with say for months, they have seen no progress and are tired of waiting.
“It’s a pain in the derrière,” said Atlanta resident Lane Mumford, as she tried her best to be polite about the frustration she feels from the road closures in the Lavista Road area, which is extremely high. "It’s difficult; I mean, just coming along here is a regular route for us, and we have to reroute,”
Back in November, a large fire at the reserve at LaVista Walk apartments shut down part of Lavista Road just before Cheshire Bridge. Then, in December, a stretch of roadway at Cheshire Bridge and Faulkner was shut down because of a fire under the bridge where a homeless encampment was found. both areas remain closed.
“It’s greatly impacted me. I can’t get where I want to get,” said another resident, Larery Brown.
We checked to see just how long the Chesire Bridge Road detour would take, and it took us exactly 7 minutes and 58 seconds to get to the other side of the road and Faulkner, a drive that prior to the closure could have taken seconds. Our drive was done during the middle of the day when traffic was light.
“It’s definitely affected business. Routinely, people come late because they don’t know where they need to go or what’s happening with any of these closures,” said Les Bouska, the owner of a salon near the Cheshire Bridge closure.
Bouska said he wants answers, so to help, we turned to Atlanta City Councilmember Alex Wan, who said there were delays at CSX Transportation as they finished their review process.
But, Wan went on to say the city has now begun expediting a construction procurement process. As for the Lavista Road closure, Wan wrote in his monthly newsletter, “We are still waiting for the Lavista Walk property owners to complete the design approval process to stabilize the burned building so that we can fully open the Cheshire/ Lavista/Lindbergh intersection. Our Buildings Department is standing by to expedite that permit once they submit the required revisions."
As for Bouska, he’s not that optimistic either road will be opened soon.
“It was 18 months for the other bridge, we're already a month and a half into this one. At this point, we don’t know what’s going to happen as far as when anything is going to start. They promised us 10 weeks, but we’re six weeks into that already, and nothing has happened,” Bouka said.
In the update, Councilmember Wan did confirm they will not meet a previous 10-week estimate to reopen Cheshire Bridge Road, and he added there is little they can legally do to push the owners of the Reserve at Lavista Walk Apartments to complete the step needed to reopen the Lavista Road closure. We also reached out the owners of the apartment complex and the mayor's office but did not hear back.