Birmingham City Council President Jonathan Austin withdrew a resolution today expressing opposition to a plan from the state transportation department to rebuild and expand Interstate 20/59 through downtown Birmingham. Critics of the plan say it cuts off neighborhoods from the city center, blunts economic development and that alternatives should be explored.
“I do believe that it has created a social, a psychological and physical barrier between the neighborhoods just directly north of the bridge, the Berlin bridge of Birmingham is what I call it, and the central business district,” says Austin.
But supporters on the council weren’t convinced.
“Public safety to me is probably the most important because if you’re dead or injured, you don’t care where the road is,” says Councilwoman Valerie Abbott. She says the ALDOT plan isn’t perfect, but it does address dangerous traffic patterns.
Others pointed to the age of the highway, saying the city did not have time to consider alternatives. Austin is among a group of city and neighborhood leaders who have sued to stop the project.