By William C. Singleton III
Homewood and Mountain Brook are a step and stride closer to their goal to build sidewalks that will link the two cities together and make crossing the Hollywood Boulevard bridge safer for runners and pedestrians.
Both cities have asked Birmingham for permission to use property it owns at the Hollywood Boulevard overpass to build sidewalks to a proposed pedestrian bridge. The Alabama Department of Transportation has given preliminary go-ahead on a project to build a pedestrian bridge parallel to the Hollywood Boulevard overpass that spans U.S. 280.
Homewood has sidewalks on the west side of the overpass and Mountain Brook on the west side. But the project’s survival depends on whether Homewood and Mountain Brook can build sidewalks on their ends to link to the proposed bridge, said Jim Wyatt, who heads Homewood’s building, inspection and zoning department.
“ALDOT said the sidewalks being completed was absolutely mandatory for the bridge to open,” he said. “You couldn’t do one without the other.”
Birmingham is reviewing the request to use its right-of-way to build the sidewalks, Wyatt said. Birmingham will not be required to fund the project.
However, Homewood’s part of the project will be about $146,000 and Mountain Brook’s will be about $100,000, their city officials said. The overall project, including ALDOT’s portion, is expected to cost about $750,000.
Wyatt said no timetable has been set for when the sidewalk project or the bridge will start. Once the cities clear all of their hurdles, they’ll have a better idea of the timetable, he added.
When completed, the pedestrian bridge will allow walkers and runners to cross Hollywood Boulevard safely.
“It’s very dangerous for people to try to walk or run across that bridge,” Wyatt said.
Homewood would run about 1,050 feet of sidewalk from the pedestrian bridge to Malaga Avenue, where sidewalks already exist. Mountain Brook would run sidewalk from the bridge to Montevallo Road, City Manager Sam Gaston said.
Ultimately, the bridge will allow Mountain Brook residents to travel by foot deep into Mountain Brook and to Homewood.
“It would take you all the way to Mountain Brook Village,” Gaston said. “Eventually, you could walk all the way to Crestline Village and to English Village. It’s going to link into our existing sidewalk system. And then once that zoo loop is put in, you’ll be able to walk all the way to the zoo on sidewalks.”
Gaston is referring to a plan to build a 1.3 mile trail around the Birmingham Zoo and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Both facilities lie on property adjacent to Mountain Brook’s city limits. Ultimately the sidewalk improvements, pedestrian bridge and zoo loop would connect to the Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System, a plan to connect cities in Jefferson County through a massive network of sidewalks, greenways, trails and bike lanes.
Mountain Brook officials are discussing whether to build the sidewalk on the north or south side of Hollywood Boulevard. The north side is closer to the Birmingham side, Gaston said.
“We decided to get some more information about trying to keep the sidewalk on the north side of the road instead of extending it on the south side and building a pedestrian crossing signal somewhere on Montevallo Road,” Gaston said.
He said some are concerned that the south side might not be the safest place to run the sidewalks.
Gaston said the City Council will meet March 10 to discuss the matter and hopefully move forward with design plans for the sidewalk, provided it determines on which side to build. Gresham Smith and Partners is designing the pedestrian bridge and the sidewalk extensions, Gaston said.
