Alpharetta Is Extending the Alpha Loop North: What the $16 Million Contract Covers

Last updated August 17, 2026.

While everyone in north Fulton has been arguing about hockey, a quieter item moved onto the Alpharetta City Council agenda that will probably touch more people day to day. The city is putting roughly $16 million into pushing the Alpha Loop north along the GA 400 corridor.

What Is On The Table

The item is RFP 26-107, a design-build contract for the Alpha Loop trail from Encore Parkway to Morrison Lake. The city agenda also refers to the north end as the Lake at Lakeview, which is the same segment.

• Contractor: Reeves Young
• Contract term: 18.5 months
• Amount: not to exceed $15,991,962
• Paired with an intergovernmental agreement with True North 400, the GA 400 corridor tax district, covering an Encore Plaza component along the route

It went to the council on August 17, 2026. If you are reading this after that meeting and want to confirm the outcome, the agenda and minutes are posted on the city meeting portal.

Why This Segment Matters More Than The Last Few

The Alpha Loop started as a downtown and Avalon connector. Most people who know it know it as the stretch you walk from Avalon into downtown Alpharetta on a Saturday.

This segment is different. Encore Parkway to Morrison Lake pushes the paved network up the Encore and Northwinds side of the corridor, which is the closest the trail has come to the north end of the city. For anyone in Windward, Haynes Bridge, or the neighborhoods east of 400 near Webb Bridge, this is the first Alpha Loop segment that is plausibly walkable or bikeable from home rather than something you drive to.

That is the difference between a nice civic amenity and something that shows up in how buyers talk about a neighborhood.

What I Would And Would Not Claim About Value

I am not going to give you a percentage. Anyone who tells you a trail adds a specific number to your house is selling you something.

What I will say is what I actually hear in showings. Walkability comes up constantly with buyers relocating from denser markets, and it is one of the few things people from the Northeast consistently say they miss. When a buyer from Brooklyn or Hoboken asks me whether they will be stuck driving everywhere, having a real answer matters. Right now in most of north Alpharetta the honest answer is mostly yes. A paved connection changes that answer for the neighborhoods it touches.

The homes most likely to see something are the ones within an easy walk of an access point. That is a narrow band, not the whole ZIP.

The Part To Plan Around

An 18.5-month design-build term means this runs well into 2028 before it is finished, and it overlaps with heavy GA 400 express lanes construction on the same corridor. If you live along the route, expect a couple of years of equipment, staging, and changed access before you get the trail.

If you are thinking about selling in that window, it is worth knowing whether your street is on the construction side or the finished side of that timeline.

Thinking about buying or selling in north Alpharetta?

Infrastructure moves slowly and then all at once, and the neighborhoods that benefit are not always the obvious ones. I work North Atlanta full-time and bring 30 years of New York real estate experience to every deal. If you want to know where your specific street lands in all this, reach out and I will walk you through it.