The Commissioners are considering a resolution on this issue, and it is very important that they hear from all concerned citizens, especially those who live and work along the U.S. 280 corridor in Shelby County.
The address of the meeting is: 200 West College Street, Columbiana, AL 35051, Phone (205) 669-3740. Please plan to attend this important and informative meeting!
6/15/10
June 28th: ReThink280 to Present to Shelby County Commission
Please plan to attend the meeting of the Shelby County Commission on Monday, June 28, 2010, at 5:00pm. ALDOT will present its Highway 280 elevated highway/toll road proposal at 5:00pm. ReThink280 will present its alternative plan at 5:30pm.
From Macy's at the Summit
City Leaders and residents fighting a proposal to elevate U.S. 280
Elevated 280, before and after
Wednesday, March 14, 2007 News staff writer
http://www.al.com/birminghamnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/community/117386286877140.xml&coll=2
HANNAH WOLFSON
Editorials from the Birmingham News
ELEVATED HIGHWAY:
Would be bad for neighborhoods
Among the many lessons learned from the construction of the nation's interstate highway system was that elevated highways had a destructive effect on neighborhoods. In "Divided Highways," author Tom Lewis recounts how proposals for elevated highways in New Orleans, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia and other large cities were rejected once neighborhood advocates realized the highway planners' raised roads would bring noise, pollution, grime and visual blight.
Granted, U.S. 280 is not an urban interstate, but an elevated highway on 280 would have these same impacts on the neighborhoods it passes.
As for "cool," big cities everywhere are now competing for young urban professionals to provide our work force, brain power and possibly leadership for the future. In the Nov. 25 edition of The New York Times, "downtown living, public transportation and plenty of entertainment options" were cited by young professionals as features that will attract them to their cities of choice.
Last year, while in St. Louis riding its light-rail mass transit system from the airport to downtown, my 19-year-old daughter asked me why we didn't have a train like that in Birmingham; great question, with no good answer.
There are other compelling reasons for including a mass transit option. Economic growth for Southern cities with mass transit exceeds that of cities without, and there is the obvious environmental benefit associated with moving people in mass rather than one or two at a time.
Bad for neighborhoods, not cool to young professionals: We need to drop the idea of an elevated highway and develop a smarter plan for our future.
Jeff Underwood
Homewood
Renderings omit dark shadows:
Renderings in The News Thursday of the proposed elevated highway above U.S. 280 were lovely.
Oddly, though, the cars and trees cast shadows, but the highway never does. The highway just seems to be barely there, blending always into the sky. It's always sunny around the highway. I guess these must be the renderings of those who want to build it.
Now, let's see the drawings from those who oppose the highway - the drawings that will show the dark shadow it forever casts across the landscape, the litter that gathers below it, the stained and graffiti-covered concrete from a few years down the road.
Art Meripol
Mountain Brook
Natural assets must not be ruined:
Couching a large concrete structure through the middle of Mountain Brook and Homewood built to facilitate unfettered urban sprawl down U.S. 280 as a "tribute to nature" is an example of the spin being employed in the elevated highway concept.
The term "concept" is appropriate, because the Alabama Department of Transportation representative said at the public hearing that DOT will do its own design of the roadway if the project moves forward. The color pictures in your newspaper represent fanciful drawings by a private firm. (For example, the major intersection views do not show up/down ramps, and assumptions are made that cutting-edge lighting and roadway technologies would be part of the DOT's final, funded design.)
Notwithstanding the design, I disagree with the premise. The concept work assumes that the cities through which U.S. 280 runs are beholden to accommodate everyone who wants to drive without traffic on the road. The beauty of Homewood and Mountain Brook is a key reason I moved here to start a business, and it creates a positive impression of Birmingham in those who visit from elsewhere. We must be careful to not ruin the natural assets that enable the growth we hope to enjoy.
G.T. LaBorde
Mountain Brook
Only butterflies, bunnies missing:
It is very disappointing to learn The News is buying the slick marketing campaign of Progress 280 and others to build an elevated U.S. 280. The highly idealized and artfully Photoshopped "pictures" The News printed without qualification lack only pretty bunnies and butterflies to make their falsely pastoral setting complete.
The truth is there is nothing pretty about the elevated road, either environmentally or aesthetically. If you wanted to provide an accurate sense of what the elevated road might be like, color the blue skies gray from the resulting air pollution and the tunnel-like effect of the structure. The misleading perspective contained in the "photo" in no way reflects just how wide and massive the elevated structure would be, or how long a shadow it would cast. And any promised short-term improvements in air quality that may be realized by decreasing stop-and-go traffic are going to quickly be eclipsed by the even greater number of cars that will be on the road.
The pictures also need a soundtrack; perhaps you have the road noise from last year's Talladega 500. Figg Engineering's disingenuous claims about better design and materials aside, the noise of the significant truck and local traffic at grade (missing from the nice pictures) will be trapped and broadcast throughout the lower elevations of interior neighborhoods. Meanwhile, because of the topography of our area, those homes situated above U.S. 280 will have no protection from the elevated portion of the road.
The one kernel of truth in so much fluffy popcorn about the road's "benefits" was the candid admission by Alabama Department of Transportation engineer Brian Davis of what we all know: Historically, adding lanes is a short-term solution that does not work.
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 Letters, faxes, and e-mailSunday, January 28, 2007 | |
If the elevated road proponents win and we spend an estimated $400 million to $700 million to build 10 miles of road, even according to DOT's most conservative estimates, the road will be obsolete within about 20 years of its construction. Meanwhile, we will have destroyed what makes our city beautiful and distinctive with the ugly urban leviathan of the elevated road.
Eva Dillard
Homewood
4 comments:
Best hope the Vincent quarry does not get approved. Rock is expensive to haul and that alone can be over half of a mines' operational costs.
It is much more convenient to supply this 280 project with materials from Vincent, than from the western side of the county.
The quarry's parent company, Vecillio and Grogan are one of the nation's largest road builders; so it is a win win situation for them.
I am a strong proponent of putting in an elevated light rail system from Chelsea into downtown Birmingham. The rail could have stops at major shopping centers such as Lee Branch, Brook Highland, somewhere in Inverness, The Summit, Brookwood, Mountain Brook Village/Homewood Area, and finally downtown Birmingham. This idea proposes a much smaller footprint on the 280 area. I lived in Charlotte, NC and saw the light rail system flurish in that area. Birmingham could do the same...
Is this movement dead? What's been happening since June 28th? I live off of 280 and am, despite traffic, desperately opposed to a multi-level toll road (Who is really going to pay those tolls anyway? Working-class Americans are going to be driving in the traffic on the lanes UNDER it!)
Birmingham has a huge problem with urban and suburban sprawl. We've simply over-expanded our infrastructure. The ReThink280 plan is a good way to temporarily solve the problem (although it will undoubtedly encourage even further sprawl out past Chelsea). Light Rail would be a better long-term solution. (We really need that anyway to move into the current century).
Ultimately, however, what Birmingham needs to do is revitalize our city center and make it an attractive place for families to live, to entice people out of far-reaching suburbs and back into town. We can't do that without a MUCH BETTER SCHOOL SYSTEM. Personally, I think they should not do ANYTHING to 280 and should put every penny of that money into education and urban renewal projects.
Well, I asked some speakers on WBHM's (NPR) show "on the line" about 1 year ago how this elevated hwy idea would be a good idea long term if and when gas prices get higher and higher, say 5 dollars per gallon?
I was told on that show by one of the speakers that I couldnt speculate about such a price hike long term....
Well, my diesel is 3.80 and rising right now and the middle east is looking increasingly instable - these gas spikes are devistating on the middle class, even if they are relatively short lived, and putting a bigger hwy for people to dive likely further still yet will be in my way so archaic and silly.
People just need to live closer to their jobs, carpool, light rail, we need to actually make policies that help our air quality, traffic congestion, and help people be more economically stable. Adding to the demand for oil is not going to help people.
If you do not like the congestion on 280, there are some houses for sale in Hoover in my neighborhood that are very nice, and well priced - very little traffic for me.
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