Marietta Started Building the Middle of a Trail Whose Ends Are Already Open

The idea of a trail from Kennesaw Mountain to the Chattahoochee River dates to 2002. That's according to Marietta City Manager Bill Bruton, speaking at the groundbreaking on September 18, 2026. Twenty-four years later, both ends of that route are paved and open. The western end is the Mountain to River Trail, which runs out of Kennesaw Mountain and through downtown Marietta. The eastern end is the Bob Callan Trail, which Cobb County finished in September 2025, running down to the river at Paces Mill. The missing piece is the stretch between them. The September groundbreaking at Aviation Sports Complex puts a construction date on the first half of it.

The second half has no date. That's the part that actually crosses I-75 and reaches the Bob Callan Trail. So for now, the Rottenwood Creek Trail works best as a reason to use the two ends that already exist, and as a long project to watch.

What broke ground on Aviation Road

The City of Marietta held the ceremony at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, September 18, at Aviation Sports Complex, 455 Aviation Road. The city's announcement describes Phase 1 as a three-mile section. It runs from Alumni Drive on Kennesaw State University's Marietta campus east to Franklin Gateway at the Franklin Gateway Sports Complex. The Marietta Daily Journal's coverage of the groundbreaking adds the details that matter if you plan to use it:

• Length: a 2.94-mile segment, which the city rounds to three miles
• Surface: paved, with four walking bridges
• Cost: $16.9 million. Atlanta Regional Commission grants cover $12.3 million, and 2016 SPLOST funds cover $4.6 million.
• Location: mostly in Ward 1, which Councilwoman Cheryl Richardson represents
• Estimated completion: April 2029

The funding mix shows where this trail sits in the bigger picture. About 73 percent of Phase 1 comes from regional grant money, and the rest is local sales tax approved a decade ago. The Atlanta Regional Commission was also a named partner when the Bob Callan Trail's final phase opened. That puts the regional body behind the pieces on both sides of the I-75 corridor, so this is more than a single city's park project.

Richardson described the trail at the ceremony as "a network of trails that connects across the city into other cities all the way to the mountain." That connection is the reason the project exists. On its own, Phase 1 links two of Marietta's sports complexes and a university campus. Its value grows with what it eventually connects to.

The east end opened a year ago

The finished piece sits at the far end of the plan. On September 11, 2025, the Cumberland Community Improvement District, Cobb County and the Atlanta Regional Commission held a ribbon cutting for the final phase of the Bob Callan Trail. That trail was built in three segments starting in 2005. The final $7.4 million phase added a 0.3-mile extension that created a fully connected 4-mile multi-use trail from Terrell Mill Road to the Chattahoochee River at Paces Mill.

That final phase also added a new trailhead at the intersection of Windy Hill and Bentley roads. According to Cobb County's announcement, it has accessible parking, shaded seating, fitness amenities, bike repair stations, wayfinding signage and landscaped green space. It also improves access to the 840-acre Chattahoochee National Recreation Area. Bob Voyles, chair of the Cumberland CID board, called the finished trail "Cumberland's natural escape to a national park and the Chattahoochee River."

For a Marietta resident, this is the half of the Kennesaw-to-river idea that already works. It's a 4-mile paved route that ends at the water, with a trailhead built for parking and starting out.

The west end runs through the Square, with a few breaks

The Mountain to River Trail, known locally as M2R, is the western anchor. The Cobb County Courier puts it at 13.5 miles overall, with 3.5 miles inside Marietta. The Marietta section runs from Kennesaw Mountain through the Kennestone area, the Historic Downtown Square, Brown Park and City Cemetery.

The route is not continuous. The TrailLink route listing gives its endpoints as 900 Kennesaw Mountain Drive and Cumberland Boulevard SE, with parking at Brown Park, 358 West Atlanta Street SE. It describes a break at Brown Park, with the path picking up again along Atlanta Road, continuing along Spring Road and connecting to the Akers Mill Trail. A 2026 user review on the same page mentions a missing section of path near the cemetery. That's a third-party listing rather than a city map, so treat it as a field report and expect conditions to differ from one stretch to the next.

M2R already reaches toward the Cumberland area by its own route. The Rottenwood Creek Trail adds a second, more direct east-west line between Marietta's trail system and the Bob Callan corridor. The city's stated goal is to link the Mountain to River Trail and the Bob Callan Trail.

The half with a date, and the half without

Phase 2 is where the trail meets the river side. According to the Journal, it starts on Franklin Gateway and heads south and east across I-75. It ends at the intersection of Delk and Bentley roads, where it ties into the Bob Callan trailhead at Terrell Mill Road. The Georgia Department of Transportation has approved a concept report. The next step is engineering and design for that second phase. No construction schedule or cost was announced.

Here's where each piece stands as of October 2026:

The pattern in that table is the main point of this story. The two ends are done, and the middle segment closest to Marietta has a date about two and a half years out. The I-75 crossing, which physically joins the two trail systems, is still at the design stage. Bruton said the idea for the Rottenwood section began 13 years ago. The Bob Callan Trail took about two decades to finish once construction began. At that pace, finishing a design phase is real progress.

Mayor Steve Tumlin framed the project at the groundbreaking in terms many Atlanta-area residents will recognize:

"We hear so much about the Beltline. We have the Beltline without all the big buildings that go up next to it."

Using both ends this fall

Phase 1 is a construction zone until its estimated 2029 finish. In the meantime, the open pieces support two very different outings.

The river end. The Windy Hill and Bentley Road trailhead is the most convenient start on the Bob Callan Trail now. It has parking, shade and bike repair stations, and the trail runs 4 connected miles to Paces Mill. It's the closest finished preview of what the full east-west route is supposed to feel like, and it's the part that ends at the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area.

The mountain end. M2R through Marietta works best in pieces. Brown Park on West Atlanta Street is the listed parking point, and the Square and City Cemetery sit along the Marietta section. The break at Brown Park and the reported gap near the cemetery make it a better trail for short walks than for long, uninterrupted rides.

If you're driving toward the Kennesaw Mountain end in the evening this fall, there's road work to plan around. GDOT is resurfacing Whitlock Avenue from John Ward Road toward North Marietta Parkway. Work began September 21, 2026, and night work is expected through December 21, weather permitting.

Construction on Phase 1 is centered on the corridor between the KSU Marietta campus and Franklin Gateway Sports Complex, with Aviation Sports Complex as the ceremony site. The city has not published a street-by-street alignment, trailhead locations or creek-crossing details for the segment. The next public update most likely to change your weekend routes is a Phase 2 design milestone, because that's the piece that turns two trail systems into one route.

A new trail can change how a home's location feels for people who walk every day. If you're weighing how projects like the Rottenwood Creek Trail fit into a move, whether you're downsizing or upsizing, Jamie Grace Miller can walk through the timeline with you street by street. Schedule a Free Consultation.