Market Street

The Market Street + Walnut Avenue improvement plan is a multi-faceted, multi-million dollar campaign that the City of Dalton is embarking upon to improve the traffic flow of Walnut Avenue and increase the visibility and marketability of the Market Street corridor. This will be done by connecting a high-value residential area to the Market Street Shoppes with a new road, creating a walkable, livable subset of our community.

Walnut Avenue is one of Dalton's two main gateways to the community for visitors and daily workers. Located at exit 333 on I-75 and the home of many of our retail offerings, this is what many visitors to Dalton see for the first time. It is also near a dense area of housing that provides excellent demographic characteristics. As you can see from the photo below, the property is very highly developed and leaves little room for more growth. Due to the demographics mentioned before, it is a highly sought-after retail area, but it is not one that has room for much more growth without tearing down existing structures and building new ones.

Market Street is home to what used to be an outlet mall center. The use of the properties now is traditional retail, but due to the fact that there are some older properties in disrepair and the road essentially becomes a dead end at the center, this area has not seen the growth and interest that Walnut Avenue has seen. To alleviate some traffic on Walnut Avenue and improve the marketability of Market Street, the City of Dalton is excited to announce the following project. These steps will begin later in 2021 and continue until completion in different stages over the next 2-3 years if everything goes as planned.

Create a dedicated turn lane that will take traffic from the northbound I-75 ramp directly into Market Street. This will help travelers to Market Street get there easily and lessen the traffic for drivers headed east on Walnut Avenue.

Transform Market Street into a more attractive, usable gateway for our community. This will involve a streetscape project, street parking, sidewalks, landscape elements, and underground utilities. We will also be upgrading the traffic signals to the green mast arms that you see in other areas of our community.

We anticipate the cost of this project to be in the $2-3 million dollar range. Design plans are due to us in July 2021, and we anticipate letting the project for immediate construction soon after that.

Create an access street to allow an entry and exit for some southwest retail locations on Walnut Avenue. This will be off of Market Street and help Walnut Avenue traffic flow more smoothly and reduce existing bottlenecks. We anticipate that this effort will be part of the design phase for Market Street with construction starting soon thereafter.

Build a new road that connects Market Street to Dug Gap Road through undeveloped property behind current Walnut Avenue retail developments. This area is prime for residential and office-type commercial applications and connects the Market Street area more easily to this great demographic area.

Build a roundabout to complete the connection of Shields road to Dug Gap Road, including the Lakemont Road access as well.

Beautify the I-75 access ramps and bridge on both the North and South ramps as well as the west side of Walnut Avenue to the intersection of Dug Gap and Tibbs Road.

The monumental peacock feather sculpture represents Dalton's textile heritage of "Peacock Alley", the nickname given to Highway 41 at the height of the chenille bedspread industry.

We believe the end result of this will be a reimagined Market Street area with a downtown feel. This type of live/work/play community will attract visitors traveling on the interstate and residents alike, providing excellent locations for future retail growth.

View the Walnut Avenue + Market Street Improvement Plan