Neighbors say new medians built in repaving project are huge risk to their safety

ATLANTA — There are important safety concerns for people living along a busy road in southwest Atlanta.

Channel 2 Action News reported on how homeowners fear a multimillion dollar repaving project on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive is putting them at risk.

The city added bike lanes and pedestrian crosswalks, but it's the medians that have people frustrated.

Neighbors said they can no longer turn left out of their driveways, and they don't like the street being reduced from four lanes down to two.

"Emergency service providers cannot adequately access the citizens in need of service," Chris Lloyd told Channel 2's Christian Jennings.

Many neighbors like Lloyd voiced their safety concerns about the medians at this week's Atlanta City Council meeting.

So far, taxpayers have forked out $22 million for what the city calls a beautification project along the MLK corridor.

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Even the fire department says the medians are a problem.

"By the time we heard about it, the project had already started and we got our fire inspectors involved," said First Deputy Chief Bryan Kennedy.

Kennedy told Jennings it's nearly impossible for his trucks to maneuver or turn and that it could be impacting their response times.

"One of the primary concerns for those medians is they are high and we don't want to tear the bottom of our trucks up trying to jump over the curbs especially when the traffic is as clogged up as it can get," Kennedy said.

Jennings reached out to the city, who said they consulted with the fire department about the project in 2017.

A city spokesperson told Jennings they are now working to finalize potential changes to the design. However, the city did not say how much that would cost.

Cox Media Group