A curb now runs down the middle of Lower Roswell Road east of Johnson Ferry, where a two-way center turn lane used to be. For years, drivers on that stretch could swing left into nearly any driveway. The finished road works differently. Cobb's design keeps a small number of left-turn openings, and the most important one leads into Parkaire Landing. That is the same shopping center where Kroger is spending $23 million and where a new bakery café is getting ready to open.
When the median is done, the corridor's errand traffic will run through one main entrance, and the businesses at that entrance are investing in it.
The finish date is close
Cobb DOT's project status page lists the project as E6020, funded by the 2011 SPLOST. The October work forecast covers correction-list items, valve and manhole adjustments, sod, permanent pavement markings and a final inspection on October 13, followed by a punch list. The page sets completion for November 19, 2026. Until that date, the county's project updates page says lane closures and delays may happen Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. It points drivers to CobbCommute for current advisories.
The project covers Lower Roswell Road from just west of Woodlawn Drive to Davidson Road. The work was not done evenly along that length, though. According to the county's March 2024 fact sheet, the west end at Woodlawn gets operational and intersection improvements. The fact sheet also says crash history and traffic volumes there are lower than on the segment from Johnson Ferry to Davidson. The raised median goes on that busier eastern segment.
Where a left turn still works
The fact sheet names the businesses that keep left-turn access through the median. There are two: the Kroger Parkaire Shopping Center and McDonald's.
On the eastern segment, that means:
- Into Parkaire Landing. A designated left turn serves the center at 4880 Lower Roswell Road at Johnson Ferry. Kroger, restaurants, shops, services and the East Cobb Library branch are all there.
- Into McDonald's. The second left-turn access listed in the fact sheet.
- Everywhere else between Johnson Ferry and Davidson. Plan to approach from the side of the road the driveway is on, or to turn around at an intersection.
Those two openings come from the 2024 design document. The finished layout is what will actually govern turns, so the striping that goes down this fall is the final word.
This openly reshapes how people move through the corridor, and it was the most debated part of the plan. East Cobb News reported that the raised median between Johnson Ferry and Davidson was the most controversial element, and that business owners in the corridor had protested it. The project was first proposed more than a decade before approval. It went through a 2022 redesign and a few delays in early 2024 before commissioners passed it on a 3–2 vote. The June 2024 report on the contract vote put the construction contract at $7 million, with nearly $11 million budgeted from 2011 SPLOST. Those were the 2024 figures, not a final cost.
The construction season showed how the median would work before it was finished. In May 2025, East Cobb News reported a closed turn lane just east of Johnson Ferry and noted that the center turn lane would become the raised median.
The biggest bet sits behind the left turn
In February, Kroger's Atlanta Division announced a major renovation and expansion of its Parkaire store. East Cobb News reported the plans.
| Before the project | After the project, expected spring 2027 | |
|---|---|---|
| Store size | 59,000 square feet | 85,000 square feet |
| Fuel | None, the only East Cobb Kroger without a fuel center | 12-pump station in the parking lot |
| Notable additions | Larger produce section and deli, full-service Murray's cheese counter, sushi kiosk | |
| Footprint | Kroger alone | Takes over three vacant retail spaces, including the former Tuesday Morning next door |
Kroger said the store will stay open throughout construction. It also said part of the existing surface parking will be removed to make room for the fuel station. Kroger has been at Parkaire Landing since the 1970s. When finished, the expanded store will be close in size to the Kroger superstore that opened on Powers Ferry Road in 2023 at MarketPlace Terrell Mill.
The timing is what matters for the corridor. The road finishes this November and the store a few months later. Grocery shoppers this winter will deal with the new left turn, a construction zone and parking that shrinks as the fuel station goes in, all at once. After spring, a shopper will be able to fill up, pick up a cheese order and stop at the library from one turn off Lower Roswell.
The center's management company welcomed the project in the Kroger release. In the East Cobb News coverage, Eric Hines of Jamestown said:
"The store's evolution aligns with our vision of creating a dynamic, one-stop destination, and we look forward to the benefits the new space will bring to the neighborhood."
A bakery café fills a long-empty corner
The Flying Biscuit space at Parkaire closed in September 2024. TOUS les JOURS is the planned tenant. Tone to ATL reported in June that the space is nearly 3,100 square feet. In early October, East Cobb News reported that signage and renovation work had started and that the bakery would open soon. No opening date has been announced.
Other tenants are holding on too. CycleBar at Parkaire announced a closure in early February, then reversed course. It held a grand-reopening weekend March 27–29 with free rides.
Parkaire has been reinventing itself for a long time. Patch has recounted that the original enclosed Parkaire Mall had an ice-skating rink that was popular in the 1970s. The library branch moved there from Merchants Walk in February 2010 and was renamed East Cobb Library.
The rest of the corridor is changing hands
Away from Parkaire, Lower Roswell is changing more through new tenants than through expansion.
At Stonewood Village, 4719 Lower Roswell Road, Suite 4200, Sidelines Grille has been sold. In late August, East Cobb News saw a sign on the doors saying a Scoreboard Social location would open in the space in November. Scoreboard Social is a sports bar business based in Naples, Florida. According to its website, the menu is similar to the old one, with traditional sports bar fare, meat, chicken and seafood entrées, desserts and a kids menu. Sidelines Grille opened in East Cobb in March 2024 and still has locations in Canton, Woodstock, Hickory Flat, Cartersville and Jasper.
At the west end, the Woodlawn Point Publix at 1100 Johnson Ferry Road closed on March 28 for what East Cobb News described as a major interior overhaul and expansion lasting several months. Check the store directly before planning a trip around it. Nearby at Woodlawn Square, 1205 Johnson Ferry Road, Urthy announced in August that it would close its shop and online store. The owner had not yet named a final date.
Put together, the reinvestment sits in two grocery anchors at either end of the project. Kroger is expanding at the median's left-turn entrance. Publix is renovating at Woodlawn, the end of the project that got intersection work instead of a median.
The path is a start, not yet a route to the river
The design change that matters most for anyone on foot or bike is the shared-use path on the south side of Lower Roswell. It varies from 8 to 10 feet wide and runs from Davidson Road to Woodlawn Drive. The county lists it as part of the Master Trails and Greenways Plan adopted by the Board of Commissioners. Earlier plans had on-street bike lanes. Cobb DOT removed them in the redesign and moved bike and pedestrian traffic onto this one off-street path.
Because the path is on the south side, it runs along the same side of the road as the shopping centers on that side, and people walking or biking don't need the median openings at all. Connections beyond the corridor are a separate question. A Cobb active-transportation planning memo lists several links as proposed, not built. They include a Johnson Ferry Road connection from Roswell Road and the existing East Cobb Trail down to Lower Roswell, a Johnson Ferry segment from Lower Roswell to the river, and a Paper Mill Road and Sope Creek link from Terrell Mill Road to the river. For now, the new path is a way to walk or bike between Woodlawn and Davidson. It does not yet run continuously to Sope Creek or Cochran Shoals.
Two dates to plan around in November
The road is set to finish in the same weeks that two well-known East Cobb holiday events take place.
- November 14–15: Cobb County's free Fall Arts Market at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center, 3332 Sandy Plains Road, runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. The county lists more than 50 local artists, food trucks, and free admission and parking.
- November 20: The Lighting of Avenue East Cobb runs 5 to 7 p.m. at The Plaza. The venue's schedule lists the Taylor Harlow Band at 5, Santa at 6:45 and the lighting of a 26-foot tree at 7. That is the evening after the county's November 19 target date for Lower Roswell.
Until November 19, the weekday closure window still applies on Lower Roswell. Grocery trips or Parkaire errands on those days may go faster before 9 a.m. or after 4 p.m.
At the Bonnie Smith Group, we follow projects like Lower Roswell because a median, a fuel center or a new path can change how a street works for the people who live near it. If you're weighing a home along the Johnson Ferry and Lower Roswell corridor and want to know how these changes affect a particular street, we'd be glad to walk it with you.
