'Surgical deconstruction' phase at MARTA's main transit hub begins

'Surgical deconstruction' phase at MARTA's main transit hub begins Josh Green Wed, 11/19/2025 - 08:10 Six months after the delayed overhaul of MARTA’s largest transit hub officially resumed, the process of peeling off Five Points station’s concrete, nearly half-century-old roof has begun. Skanska, a global development and construction firm, reports it has started the “surgical deconstruction” of the MARTA Five Points station canopy. It marks the initial step in reimagining the 144,400-square-foot bus and train hub into a more vibrant, accessible, and safer "city center" in the heart of downtown, per the company.  Since MARTA debuted, Five Points has been the system’s largest station and central transfer point for all rail lines. (Contrary to popular opinion, MARTA’s Airport station is technically the system’s busiest, followed by Five Points, as agency officials recently relayed.)The Five Points overhaul calls for replacing the current roof with a 32,000-square-foot, mass-timber canopy that includes three new pedestrian entrances, according to Skanska. All work is taking place while the station’s underground portion remains open for MARTA customers.  Fresh rendering depicting plans for an opened-up, main Five Points station entry. MARTA, via Skanska As is, the Five Points canopy is made of “pre-stressed concrete beams, post-tension cables, hollow-core slabs, glazing, and columns” that require Skanska to have “in-depth engineering understanding of the structure to systematically deconstruct it,” according to a project update.  “We’re excited to contribute to the revitalization of [Five Points] as MARTA and the city work to create a more dynamic urban core in downtown Atlanta,” Matt Frey, executive vice president and general manager for Skanska USA Building’s Atlanta-based operations, said in a statement.  The current canopy has been subjected to decades of water intrusion that’s led to damage around the station, including to crucial electric train control equipment, according to MARTA.   Skanska officials forecast that deconstruction alone will continue until sometime in 2027.  View of Five Points station with the canopy lifted, revealing a plaza equipped with a centralized bus hub, new customer offices, landscaping, and community spaces including a soccer pitch. MARTA Once the canopy is extracted, future Five Points phases will see the new, more transparent canopy installed, alongside an improved Broad Street pedestrian connection and centralized bus hub. Modified entry points and other changes at the station are expected to continue for several years. Other planned additions include community spaces (to include a public soccer pitch), new customer offices, urban agriculture, and public art. Transit agency officials said in September the project is still expected to cost roughly $230 million. That’s being funded mostly through the More MARTA Atlanta half-penny sales tax, with another $13.8 million from the State of Georgia and a $25 million Federal RAISE Grant. The remaining funding is being sourced from the MARTA core penny tax. Once the overhaul is finished, MARTA hopes the bunker-like, 1970s transit hub will be more of a vibrant, centralized destination with smoother access to trains and buses.MARTA officials have said the full Five Points renovation is estimated to take four years, but that street-level access won’t be impacted for that long. The tentative reopening date is sometime in 2029. ...Follow us on social media: Twitter / Facebook/and now: Instagram  • Downtown news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta) Tags MARTA Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority Five Points Five Points MARTA Station Downtown Atlanta Central Atlanta Progress Mayor Andre Dickens Alternate Transportation Alternative Transportation 2026 FIFA World Cup World Cup Atlanta Propel ATL MARTA Army Georgia STAND-UP Atlanta City Council Atlanta Protests Atlanta Downtown Improvement District Peachtree Street Skanska Skanska Skanska Building USA mass timber construction Timber construction timber construction Images Fresh rendering depicting plans for an opened-up, main Five Points station entry. MARTA, via Skanska View of Five Points station with the canopy lifted, revealing a plaza equipped with a centralized bus hub, new customer offices, landscaping, and community spaces including a soccer pitch. MARTA MARTA MARTA MARTA MARTA Subtitle Five Points forecast calls for more than a year of demo work ahead, reports construction firm Neighborhood Downtown Background Image Image Associated Project Five Points MARTA station redevelopment Before/After Images Sponsored Post Off