How do you deconstruct a Brutalist canopy hulking over MARTA’s most important rail station? One piece at a time — slowly.
Why it matters: This summer, construction firm Skanska is scheduled to begin the $47 million, 14-month process to take apart the concrete canopy atop downtown’s Five Points station.
State of play: MARTA is spending approximately $230 million in local, state and federal funding to give the dilapidated 45-year-old station — the one rail MARTA stop where all four lines meet — a makeover.
Zoom in: Crews will start by installing structural supports in the plaza to shore up the structure, Keli Davis, the MARTA executive leading the project, told a transit agency committee Thursday.
- Workers will then remove the half-acre roof, glass and rafters. They’ll then dismantle the remaining pieces in phases to prepare for the station’s reconstruction.
Yes, but: MARTA officials said workers will likely not finish construction on the new station before summer 2026 when the FIFA World Cup comes to town.
- MARTA will close street-level access to Five Points for more than a year during the project, though rail service and transfers will not be affected.
The intrigue: Four “megacolumns” designed and built to respond to seismic events, Davis said will remain below street level, Davis told.
- “Those columns go all the way to bedrock,” she said. “They’re not coming out at all. That’s what holds the station up.”
The big picture: Davis told committee members that, were Five Points not burdened with a water intrusion issue, the station could feasibly last “to eternity.”
- “The station itself, the platforms? An absolute engineering marvel,” she said.
