Emory Report

June 26, 2000

Volume 52, No. 36

Clifton Corridor CDC begins major construction projects By Jan Gleason Travelers on Clifton Road between Briarcliff and Houston Mill roads may encounter intermittent delays beginning in late June and continuing throughout the summer due to utility relocation and road construction required for a new entrance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "The new entrance is necessary for the CDC's long-range master plan," said Sam Tarr, CDC staff architect. "We will make every effort to avoid lane closures during morning and evening rush hours, and we will only need to close one lane at a time. But people in that area at lunchtime may experience delays. For a short duration one lane will be closed entirely." The CDC has recently acquired land between Michael Street and Clifton Way south of Clifton Road and has taken possession of roadways in the area to begin implementing its Roybal Campus Master Plan (named in honor of former California Congressman Edward Roybal). The 10-year master plan will replace decayed laboratories and build new facilities, bringing CDC employees from various locations in Atlanta onto two campuses: the Edward Roybal campus on Clifton Road and the Chamblee Campus on Buford Highway. The number of CDC employees at the Clifton campus is expected to nearly double to approximately 4,200 when the plan is completed in 2009. "DeKalb County has approved plans to provide a new intersection with a stoplight in the approximate location of the existing Michael Street just east of Emory's Human Resources/Materiel Centers," Tarr said. "That intersection will serve as the main entrance to the CDC with two inbound lanes and three outbound lanes." The new intersection will provide a dedicated left turn lane into the CDC along Clifton Road. "Future plans call for this left turn lane to be extended down Clifton to the entrance to Human Resources/Materiel Center," said Al Herzog, senior project manager in Emory's campus planning office. "Emory plans to create a right turn lane off Clifton into the Human Resources/Materiel Centers entrance to improve traffic flow." CDC plans also call for the removal of the Clifton Road/Clifton Way intersection and stoplight in mid-2002, although the emergency signal for the DeKalb County Fire Station will remain. CDC plans provide a site for the relocation of the Clifton Child Care Center (CCCC) on the west end of the property; Clifton Way will remain open to CCCC and CDC traffic until the new CCCC opens in early 2002. The CDC anticipates opening its new 650-car parking deck in September. Employees who have been parking at area churches and Emory West and riding shuttles to work will be brought back to park at the new deck, which is located on the south edge of the CDC property near the CSX railroad tracks. Two other future parking decks are included in the master plan: one at the campus' southwest corner and one across the street from Emory's Michael Street Deck on Houston Mill Road. Return to June 26, 2000 contents page