Westside

Atlanta’s Westside Park/Bellwood Quarry Megaproject Finds Echelon and Belgard Materials A Perfect Fit No longer will the Bellwood Quarry in Atlanta, GA serve as a Walking Dead zombie pit or a Stranger Things supernatural playground. The 400-foot deep gorge, a recognizable filming backdrop for TV shows and movies, is part of an ambitious multi-phase project that will utterly transform the long-neglected Westside area as well as address several long-term municipal objectives. Under the project, which started construction last year, the Bellwood Quarry will be repurposed into Atlanta’s largest water reserve container, while the surrounding kudzu-invaded grounds are being developed into Westside Park, a 280-acre multi-use recreational space. Atlanta has experienced an abundance of growth in the past decade driven by an influx of new residents, expanding businesses opportunities, and the implementation of the Atlanta BeltLine—a pedestrian/bike pathway designed to eventually loop around the entire metro area. The Westside Park/Bellwood Quarry project addresses several issues associated with this exploding population: water shortages and surpluses; an aging infrastructure; and initiatives to balance development with environmentally responsible practices. Water For The Future After years of conceptualizing the project, contractors dramatically broke ground by activating a powerful boring machine nicknamed “Driller Mike,” to burrow out a five-mile-long, 10-foot diameter tunnel connecting the Chattahoochee River to the Bellwood Quarry and the Hemphill Water Treatment Plant. Tunnel supervisor, Larry Weslowski, explained, “Once it was activated, Driller Mike was on duty round-the-clock for almost a month.” This 2.5-billion-gallon capacity gorge will soon hold a large portion of ...