Northern Beltline

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - In the coming year the Birmingham Business Alliance will support tax credits for preservation of historic buildings, work on the Northern Beltline and research at UAB, and it will oppose any "overreaching" environmental regulation and any legislation that would allow workers to carry guns on company property without employers' approval.

The organization, which represents Birmingham-area businesses and is an advocate of economic development, today laid out its legislative agenda for 2013. Its "action" agenda includes six items at the federal level and eight at the state level. Dozens more items appear on its "monitor" agenda.

Myla Calhoun Choy, senior vice president of public policy, said the agendas will serve as a roadmap, marking how the BBA will exercise its influence to help shape legislation and public policy.

"We are confident that, with regional cooperation, the items outlined in the agendas can move the Birmingham region toward continued economic prosperity," she said in a prepared statement.

The agendas will be delivered to state lawmakers Feb. 26 and to the state's delegation in Washington Oct. 15-17.

Federal action agenda:

--Northern Beltline. BBA is seeking the start of construction and full funding.

--Biomedical research facilities at UAB that would provide facilities for interdisciplinary research for researchers from different schools.

--An intermodal transportation facility at UAB, to serve as an interface between private vehicles and buses.

--Restoration of 2010-level funding for pediatric graduate medical education.

--Opposition to "any overreaching U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or other federal agency actions including regulations, initiatives or guidance that would adversely impact or be detrimental to the current or future economic development of the state."

State action agenda:

--Timely resolution of Jefferson County's bankruptcy.

--Start of construction on the Northern Beltline, and full funding.

--Development of a plan to repay funds withdrawn from the Alabama Trust Fund as a result of the Sept. 18 referendum.

--Legislation that would provide income tax credits for rehabilitation of historic structures to stimulate private investment.

--Changing laws governing the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority including reducing terms of board members from six to four years and creating an advisory body of riders and community activists.

--Reactivation and expansion of the Alabama Innovation Fund, which encourages development of intellectual property in universities.

--Biomedical research facilities at UAB that would provide facilities for interdisciplinary research for researchers from different schools.

--Oppose any legislation that would limit employers' right to restrict firearms on company property.

via al.com

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The Alabama Department of Transportation soon will make offers to landowners for an additional 31 acres of right-of-way for the Northern Beltline highway project to allow room for managing stormwater runoff during construction, state Transportation Director John Cooper said.

The state will buy the land from some of the same 101 landowners from whom the state has already bought 345 acres for the first 3.4-mile segment of the planned 52-mile corridor.

The entire new highway is projected to cost $4.7 billion throughout the 30-year span of anticipated construction.

Construction on the first segment -- between Alabama 75 and Alabama 79 near Pinson -- is scheduled to begin in spring 2013, Cooper said.

Cooper did not give a cost estimate for the extra land but called the additional purchases' impact on the overall cost of the project "minimal."

The stormwater management techniques will incorporate features that will hold and slow runoff and others that will filter clean water from construction runoff such as adding flocculants, or materials that can remove suspended sediment, Cooper said. Those combined measures will improve the quality of stormwater runoff, Cooper said.

Cooper said the state will engage its contractor to hold training sessions on stormwater management and best practices for all contractors involved in the project. "In other words, folks, this will be the best-designed highway project -- from the standpoint of stormwater management -- in the history of Alabama," Cooper said.

The measures are directed at the primary impacts of construction but do not address secondary environmental impacts such as the predicted development the highway will bring said Eva Dillard, staff attorney for Black Warrior Riverkeeper.

Dillard cited the Environmental Protection Agency's comments on the project. The EPA in September wrote a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers urging the agency to reject ALDOT's construction permit for the six-lane highway, questioning the size, scope and need for the project. Dillard said she had not seen details of the state's stormwater management plan to gauge post-construction impacts on the region's environment, including the effects on the headwaters of the Black Warrior and Cahaba rivers.

"I just don't know that the steps he has outlined will be adequate to address the long term impacts," Dillard said.

The project still requires a Corps of Engineers permit before construction can begin. Cooper said ALDOT soon will issue a response to comments submitted by the public to the Corps of Engineers as the application process continues. Survey crews are examining the rest of the proposed route between Interstate 65 eastward to Interstate 59, with approximate locations of interchanges identified State Design Engineer William Adams said. No surveying work has yet been done west of Interstate 65, Adams said.

When the entire project is complete, the Northern Beltline will stretch from Interstate 59 in northeastern Jefferson County to the Interstate 20/59 - Interstate 459 interchange near Bessemer.

via AL.com

BIRMINGHAM - AL - The Alabama Department of Transportation will have a news conference to review the Northern Beltline project. The conference is set for Thursday, December 13, 2012 at 11:30 a.m. It will take place at ALDOT"s Third Division office at 1020 Bankhead Highway in Birmingham. ALDOT's director, John Cooper, will also announce an additional measure to protect quality of environment. Stay with ABC 33/40 and www.abc3340.com as we follow the latest on this story.

via ABC 33/40

Pell City -- Gil Rogers, attorney representing Southern Environmental Law Center, approached Pell City Council Monday night about issues surrounding the proposed Northern Beltline project.

The proposed Northern Beltline is a 52-mile, six-lane stretch of interstate that would be built around the northern part of Birmingham.

The Northern Beltline affects St. Clair because the county will soon join the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), a transportation improvement program that coordinates long-term (25 years) and short-term (five-year) transportation projects under the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham (RPCGB).

"A cost-benefit analysis needs to be done by ALDOT to see whether this is still the best project for Alabama," Rogers said.

Based on a study conducted by Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies for the Southern Environmental Law Center, Rogers told the council the multi-billion dollar cost to taxpayers outweighs the potential for jobs and revenue created by the project.

The Northern Beltline is expected to cost taxpayers $4.7 billion, or $90 million per mile.

As a result of the new federal transportation bill passed in July the $4.7 billion can now be spent on other needed projects. The bill eliminates separate funds designated to the project.

Money designated for the construction project is now competing with other road construction projects, and the construction would take 35 years to complete.

If the Northern Beltline is completed, it is only expected to relieve traffic congestion by 1-3 percent.

"I just want St. Clair County to be aware," Rogers said. "This may not be the best investment given that the federal pot of money is shrinking, not growing.

"We need to work on making our voice heard sooner rather than later. It will be harder to change course later on," Rogers said.

Mayor Bill Hereford said the city initially endorsed the project before the new bill was passed.

via St. Clair News-Aegis

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants a more thorough assessment of the impact of building the Birmingham Northern Belt�line before a permit is is�sued to start construction on its first phase.

The EPA made the re�quest in a letter sent last week to the Army Corps of Engineers, which is consid�ering an application from the Alabama Department of Transportation to begin building the first 3.4 mile segment of the beltline. The road is a planned 52-mile interstate connector that would arc from Interstate 59 in the northeast corner of Jefferson County to I-20/59 at its junction with I-459 in the southwest corner of the county.

"We have just gotten that letter and we are reviewing it," said ALDOT Spokesman Tony Harris. "We are work�ing to provide everything the EPA wants to see and the Corps wants to see."

Harris said he didn't know whether the request for additional information would delay the project. AL�DOT officials had hoped to break ground on the first phase later this year, and Harris said that still was the goal.

James Giattina, director of the Water Protection Divi�sion at EPA's regional head�quarters in Atlanta, charac�terized the letter as a routine part of the give-and-take be�tween agencies as they work toward a plan that would minimize the damage to the environment.

"It is fairly routine for us to issue a letter," he said. "These letters don't signal anything other than that we have concerns that need to be addressed."

But critics of the project said EPA's letter bolstered their assertions that the impact of the beltline project has not been adequately studied, including the impact to the headwaters of the Cahaba River and the tributaries that feed into Turkey Creek and ultimately the Black Warrior River.

"This is basically a veto threat by EPA," said Gil Rogers, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is representing the Black Warrior Riverkeeper in a lawsuit against ALDOT. "We don't think the project has been justified."

Rogers said there are other transportation projects that could be built quickly and provide more value and quicker returns than the beltline, which is expected to take decades and cost an estimated $4.7 billion.

"From a job creation standpoint, it (the beltline) is a financial boondoggle for taxpayers," Rogers said.

EPA's concerns listed in the letter go to fundamental questions about the beltline. The EPA asked that ALDOT provide further documentation that the initial 3.4-mile segment planned has "independent utility." The segment is in a sparsely populated area near Palmerdale. The six-lane interstate segment would connect Alabama 75 and Alabama 79, two state routes that already are connected not far south of there. Federal regulations require that segments of larger projects be worth building even if the rest of the project isn't built.

EPA also wants ALDOT to provide additional appraisals of the impact building the entire eastern half of the beltline would have on the environment, including the impact of spin-off development made possible by the roadway.

Despite ALDOT's submission of updated information on the project, Giattina said, some of the analysis was not updated to reflect revisions to the size and scale of the project. The beltline initially was planned as a four-lane highway but now is envisioned as a six-lane highway that will be graded to accommodate a future expansion to 8 lanes.

Giattina said the agency is not looking for a completely new environmental impact statement but instead is seeking a "conceptual-level environmental analysis" that takes into account the impact, justifies it, and explains what will be done to compensate for any environmental damage.

"Does the utility and purpose outweigh the environmental impacts you expect to cause and can those impacts be effectively mitigated?" he said.

Via al.com by Thomas Spencer from The Birmingham News click here for story.

GRAYSVILLE, Ala. (WIAT) - The Southern Environmental Law Center and the Black Warrior Riverkeeper want the Metropolitan Planning Organization to take the Northern Beltline of the proposed four-year funding plan.

They question the economic benefits and environmental risks of the project and say it would be one of the most expensive highways ever built in the United States.

"It's not in the city center and so you're talking about going through rural land without much infrastructure, which is part of the cost, and this is why some of these projects in other parts of the country have failed," said Sarah Stokes, Southern Environmental Law Center. "We would like ALDOT to follow the law and do a complete, comprehensive study of the environmental impacts and the economic impacts of this Northern Beltline, because it doesn't make sense to sink 4.7 billion dollars, harm our headwaters, harm our air pollution, harm our endangered species, without really knowing if it's going to truly cause the economic development that some people are claiming it will cause."

Graysville Mayor Doug Brewer is the Chairman of the MPO. He says the Northern Beltline will have a positive impact on the entire county and is against delaying the project.

"You just really don't want to see that because you risk losing funding from the federal government," said Brewer. "There's been a great deal of study already and we feel like there's been enough."

On behalf of Black Warrior Riverkeeper, SELC filed a lawsuit against ALDOT and the Federal Highway Administration earlier this year for "failing to undertake a full analysis of the indirect and cumulative impacts of the Northern Beltline."

They argue that the MPO should not allocate money for the construction project until a full comprehensive study has been completed.

Via CBS 42

Birmingham's 52-mile Northern Beltline will cost $4.7 billion to build according to a new estimate, a big jump from the previous price of $3.4 billion issued in late 2009.

According to Alabama Department of Transportation officials, the new cost estimate was developed in conjunction with the Federal Highway Administration, which is asking states to review major projects to account for price inflation over time and other factors that have caused cost overruns on projects across the country.

Read the full story on AL.com's web site.