County reopens improved portion of Magnolia Drive Trail

Special to the Outlook

Traffic is back to normal along one of the main thoroughfares on the Southside of Tallahassee.

Leon County Government last Thursday reopened Phase 1 of the Magnolia Drive Trail project between South Meridian Street and Pontiac Drive after a temporary closure to construct major infrastructure improvements along the South Magnolia Corridor. 

These improvements, designed by the county and Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency, include an upgraded paved trail to provide connectivity, updated landscaping and street lighting to improve pedestrian safety, and upgraded water and sewer infrastructure.

As crews finalize utility and landscaping improvements, intermittent lane closures can be expected along Phase 1 in fall 2022. The City of Tallahassee further enhanced the corridor by converting overhead electric lines to underground and making traffic signal improvements at the South Meridian Street and Magnolia Drive intersection. 

Funding for the improvements came from Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency.

The purpose of the Magnolia Drive Trail project is to provide connectivity and to improve safety along the South Magnolia corridor. Safety improvements for Phase 1 of the Magnolia Drive Trail project include a landscape buffer along the paved trail for pedestrians. The overall project will construct a new shared-use trail to provide multi-modal connectivity along the entire corridor from South Adams to Apalachee Parkway.

Construction efforts were broken into multiple phases, beginning at South Adams Street and moving along South Magnolia Drive to Apalachee Parkway.  Magnolia Drive and South Meridian Street opened to traffic. 

Previously, the segment from South Meridian Street to South Monroe Street was completed in March 2022, and the segment from South Monroe Street to South Adams Street was completed in 2017. Citizens can now walk the new paved trail along South Magnolia Drive from South Adams Street to Pontiac Drive.

Phase 2 of the Magnolia Drive Trail project will extend the overall project improvements and the multi-use trail along South Magnolia Drive from Pontiac Drive to Diamond Street.

The design for Phase 2 of the project was completed earlier this year and the construction bidding process is anticipated to begin in fall 2022.