Peachtree Road and dozens of surrounding streets will shut down Saturday for the 57th annual Northside Hospital Peachtree Road Race, bringing before-dawn closures across Buckhead and Midtown as more than 55,000 runners and walkers head to the course.
The race is scheduled for Saturday, July 4, and its footprint reaches from Lenox Square in Buckhead to Piedmont Park in Midtown. That makes the traffic changes immediate for anyone trying to move through the area early in the morning, especially since organizers are urging runners and spectators to leave cars at home and use MARTA instead.
Peachtree Road from Piedmont Road to 10th Street closes at 5 a.m. Saturday and stays shut until about 11:30 a.m., though a rolling reopening begins around 9:30 a.m. The route will not fully reopen before about 11 a.m., and several streets near the starting line at Lenox Square begin closing around 4:30 a.m. Those include portions of Lenox Road, Buckhead Loop, Roxboro Road, Wieuca Road, Kingsboro Road and Oak Valley Road.
Near the finish at Piedmont Park, portions of 10th Street, Monroe Drive, 8th Street and Peachtree Place will remain closed through the morning, and some of those restrictions began earlier this week to prepare for race operations. MARTA trains start running at 4 a.m., with Lenox Station on the Gold Line the easiest way to reach the starting area and Midtown Station the closest stop to the finish. After the race, shuttle buses will run between Midtown and Lindbergh stations.
The closures are the price of an event that draws participants from more than 30 countries and has become Atlanta's biggest Fourth of July tradition. For drivers, the message is plain: the roads that feed Buckhead and Midtown will not behave like normal city streets on Saturday, and the safest plan is to avoid the area or use transit until the route is fully back open late in the morning.
