Collegeville bridges may lead to more upgrades; timetable set for neighborhood work
With construction on two long-awaited bridges in Collegeville finally set to begin in 2013 and 2014, Birmingham City Councilwoman Maxine Parker is proposing $10 million in new projects, ranging from streetscapes and brownfield cleanup to sidewalks and interstate lighting.
Parker said she has a campaign to fund her new capital projects to-do list. The work will be financed through a mix of public and private money, she said.
"People are coming to the table, and as they come to the table we are able to talk about the entire district," she said. "You don't ever announce a project until you're halfway there, and I feel I'm halfway there."
Parker said the funding would come from a mix of federal and state money, the city and the private sector. The package consists of:
$5 million for infrastructure, including sidewalk improvements throughout District 4, a streetscape along 12th Avenue in Norwood, and lighting for Interstate 20/59 from Norwood to East Lake and Woodlawn.
$2.5 million for park expansion and green space.
$2.5 million for environmental cleanup. "There are a lot of things, but they are much-needed things," Parker said. "It's the 21st century and we still have ditches and no sidewalks in our neighborhoods. We know that the city funding is limited, so we always try to go out and make these things happen." Parker said the successful funding effort for both a pedestrian bridge and a vehicle overpass across the railroad tracks in Collegeville has added momentum to her latest initiatives.
The $8.3 million vehicle overpass is planned on 34th Street North between 28th Avenue and 32nd Avenue. The $4 million foot bridge is planned near Hudson K-8 School.
The bridges are designed to give some relief to residents who are often boxed inside the neighborhood by tracks and trains that serve nearby heavy industries. Parker said construction on the pedestrian overpass is set for 2013, while work on the vehicle bridge will begin in 2014.
Collegeville and North Birmingham for decades made up a major industrial center where homes were built just blocks from the plants where many residents worked. Residents complain that the trains cut them off from the rest of the city.
In addition, the Collegeville area's industrial roots have left hazardous residue that must be cleaned, Parker said.
Much of Parker's list is included in the Collegeville Neighborhood Plan drafted in 2010 by the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham and the Birmingham Metropolitan Planning Organization. That plan also listed the bridges.
"These were things that the neighborhood wanted, and that's what was reflected," said Steve Ostaseski, principal planner with RPC. "The rest of the projects are going to have to work themselves through the process."
Birmingham City Councilwoman Maxine Parker.
A major part of that process is having someone pushing the initiative and keeping it in the public and political forefront, he said.
"It always takes someone to move it forward," Ostaseski said. "That's what gets things done. It's not that they come with the money. They come with the interest and they come with the passion for doing something."
Parker said she has not forgotten about the Finley flyover, a long-stalled major bridge project that would extend from Finley Boulevard in North Birmingham over the railroad tracks and into the Collegeville neighborhood.
The council this morning is expected to vote on a resolution asking Mayor William Bell to require the city's consultant, Volkert & Associates, to complete the environmental assessment document required for that project.
Parker hopes work on the flyover can begin by 2016. Officials are still working to compile the money needed for its $32 million first phase.
"We're finally at the stage where we need the environmental document provided to the Alabama Department of Transportation," she said. "We want to make sure that all of our timelines are in order so our project is able to move."
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