PATH400 Past Loridans: Why the Next Opening Depends on a Bridge Over Nancy Creek

For a little more than a year, PATH400 in North Buckhead has ended at Loridans Drive. The 0.75-mile stretch from Wieuca Road opened on September 26, 2025, along with the 80-foot-high bridge at Mountain Way Common. Crews are now working north of Loridans. Livable Buckhead expects construction on Atlanta's part of that work to finish in the first quarter of 2027.

That date will not decide when residents can walk the new section, though. Atlanta's trail stops just south of Nancy Creek at the city limit. Sandy Springs is building the bridge that carries the path over the creek, and it has a schedule of its own.

What Is Going Up North of Loridans

The trail does not head north from Loridans on level ground. Appen Media reported that the path continues up the east side of Georgia 400 after a switchback underneath the Loridans bridge. It is a 12-foot-wide trail, paid for by Atlanta, running from Loridans Drive to the city limit just south of Nancy Creek.

In an August 2026 column for Buckhead.com, Livable Buckhead executive director Denise Starling called the section "trail building on hard mode." She described "enormous retaining walls, steep grades and a massive switchback." Concrete was being poured when she wrote, and she said this fall would bring final grading, more concrete, handrails and preparation for landscaping. Planting is set for cooler weather, so new trees and shrubs have a better chance of making it through their first season.

Starling also said the public opening "will depend on final inspections, landscaping and coordination with Sandy Springs." That last condition is the one that matters most for the timing.

Why Atlanta and Sandy Springs Plan to Open Together

According to Starling, Atlanta and Sandy Springs want to open together "rather than cut a ribbon at the city limit and leave everyone staring across an unfinished gap." Sandy Springs has put the section from the Atlanta city limit to Windsor Parkway first in line, so its trail can open with Atlanta's. Livable Buckhead says a joint celebration is planned, with details to come once the construction schedule is firm.

The stretch from the city limit to Windsor Parkway is Sandy Springs' Segment 1, and it includes the bridge over Nancy Creek. Appen Media reported that the bridge will be 400 feet long and stand 50 feet above the creek, and called it the most expensive part of the extension. For a sense of scale, it is five times as long as the Mountain Way Common bridge is high. Starling allowed that Sandy Springs' bridge "may be almost as impressive as our treetop bridge."

The two cities have published different timelines. Livable Buckhead's August update gives the first quarter of 2027 for Atlanta's section. The City of Sandy Springs project page, in its "Status – Fall 2026" note, says Segments 1 and 3 should be complete in early 2028. Appen Media gave a similar estimate of "by January 2028."

Neither city has published an opening date. If Sandy Springs' forecast holds and the cities still open together, Atlanta's finished stretch could sit behind construction fencing for most of 2027 while work continues at Nancy Creek. If the Sandy Springs work runs ahead of its forecast, that wait gets shorter. Either way, the date to watch is the one for Segment 1.

The bridge work has already been shaped by the creek. Appen Media reported that protections for an endangered bat species that roosts near Nancy Creek meant contractors had to clear trees before March 31 to avoid a seasonal ban on clearing. The same report found that in early November, crews were working on both sides of the creek at Windsor Parkway and Starlight Drive, pouring concrete molds for the bridge.

The Extension by Segment

Here is how the pieces north of Loridans compare, using the most recent published status for each:

The middle segment is the reason the trail will not reach the Perimeter in one step. Sandy Springs awarded F.S. Scarbrough a $15,758,413 contract for Segment 2 in December 2025, backed by an $18 million investment from the Atlanta Regional Commission in 2025. The city's project page gives two start dates for that segment, "Summer 2026" in one place and "Fall 2026" in its current status note. Both describe roughly three years of construction.

When the Atlanta section and Segment 1 open, Livable Buckhead says PATH400 will run about 7.4 continuous miles from Buckhead toward the Perimeter. The full extension ends at the GA 400/I-285 interchange and connects to proposed multiuse paths on Peachtree Dunwoody Road and Mt. Vernon Highway. That full connection depends on Segment 2 being built through the late 2020s.

The Parks Waiting on the Trail Crews

Back in North Buckhead, the schedule at Nancy Creek matters for one more reason. Some of the neighborhood's own projects are timed to the trail work.

• Loridans Park. This five-acre greenspace at Loridans Drive is going through the City's procurement process. Livable Buckhead expects the contractor to mobilize as construction on the northern trail section wraps up. The current Loridans Park concept includes an entrance plaza, a shade structure, benches, bike racks, a winding trail, gardens, history panels and interactive art. These are plans, not finished amenities.
• Mountain Way Common. The park at the north end of the treetop bridge is going through a stream-buffer variance process. Starling wrote that it will likely need more fundraising once final costs are known.
• Old Ivy Park. The City has funded design work on an expanded plan, with improvements on the east and north sides of the existing park.

The Wieuca–Loridans segment added nearly 500 native trees in 2025 and cost $13.4 million. That money came from federal transportation funds administered by the Atlanta Regional Commission, City of Atlanta TSPLOST funds and design funding from the Buckhead Community Improvement District. The park projects along that stretch are now the next layer of work there.

Where the Trail Goes After the Northern Push

The work north of Loridans is the last major piece of what Starling calls the "regional spine." Two shorter projects to the south are going through Atlanta's procurement process, with construction expected to start in early 2027 and finish later that year. One is the Peachtree Park connection, which links Peachtree Road to the Gordon Bynum Bridge. The other widens sidewalks at the trail's southern end into a route that connects to the Atlanta Beltline.

After that, the planning shifts toward Buckhead's own neighborhoods. Livable Buckhead is working with partners on a possible connection to Blue Heron Nature Preserve and, eventually, Chastain Park. In her column, Starling wrote that those routes need "a lighter touch" around streams, wetlands and tree canopy. She also listed future connections along Lenox Road and Piedmont Road. All of these are still at the planning, partnership and funding stages, with no construction dates.

For North Buckhead, the order is clear. Atlanta's section north of Loridans and its switchback come first. The opening then waits for Sandy Springs to finish the Nancy Creek bridge to Windsor Parkway. Loridans Park construction is expected to start as the trail crews finish. In the meantime, the existing sections of PATH400 stay open, and Livable Buckhead asks trail users to watch for construction signs and temporary closures near active work.

David Kaufman follows projects like PATH400 because they change how a street works from day to day, long before anything shows up in a sale. If you live near Wieuca or Loridans and want to talk through what the trail, the new parks or the construction timeline could mean for your home, get in touch.