Photo by Nick Patterson.
Now, at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the nation’s Interstate Highway System has entered a new era in its relatively short half-century life. The system is aging, its bridges collapsing, and its maintenance long deferred. Traffic everywhere overwhelms capacity. … The Interstate Highway System is in a state of flux, but it nevertheless remains essential both to the mobility of the American people and to the health of the American economy.
However, traditional patterns of highway politics and policy focused on growth and expansion face new challenges, especially in the cities. In the post-Interstate era, some mayors, planners and citizen groups have supported a different kind of highway program — one that would tear down inner-city, elevated expressways described as aging, unappealing, environmentally damaging and dangerous. Teardown advocates seek to relocate such highways to less offensive alternative corridors or bury them in tunnels or decked-over trenches.
Raymond Mohl is a professor of history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His scholarly work has been concerned primarily with modern America, with a focus on urban, ethnic and social issues. He has published more than 130 research articles, and won prizes for his writing on civil rights and city and regional planning.
In addition, Mohl has authored or co-authored a dozen books, including the one from which the passage above is taken, Interstate: Highway Politics and Policy Since 1939, written with Mark A. Rose of Florida Atlantic University. He is widely considered to be America’s foremost authority on interstate highways, and has written extensively about the history of “freeway revolts” — organized opposition to the construction of urban expressways from the late 1950s into the 1970s — and the “expressway teardown” movement that had its beginnings in the 1970s and has picked up steam in recent years in a long list of major cities, including Nashville and New Orleans.
Mohl sees parallels between highway projects that have generated controversy and opposition in other cities and current plans by the Alabama Department of Transportation to reconfigure Interstate 20/59 through downtown Birmingham. The ALDOT plan calls for elimination of all exits from 17th Street North to 31st Street North. It also would alter traffic patterns on numerous surface streets, most notably 11th Avenue North, which if rebuilt as planned would become the primary artery from the interstate into downtown and see daily traffic increase from roughly 5,000 vehicles to as many as 40,000.
“There are alternatives” to the ALDOT plan, Mohl states categorically. He mentions trenching the highway — an option taken or under consideration in Seattle, Kansas City and Philadelphia — rebuilding it at street level — Milwaukee, Cleveland, Syracuse — and tearing down or relocating it altogether, as done, recommended or being considered in New York City, Buffalo, Baltimore and Hartford, as well as in Nashville and New Orleans. Other cities currently considering some combination of teardowns, trenching or relocation include Cincinnati, Dallas, St. Louis and San Diego. In all cases, proponents tout benefits that include restoration of street grids, creation of new public spaces, and improved options for street-level transit.
“There’s a lot of examples of what can be done with imagination,” Mohl says. But, he adds, taking note of ALDOT’s rejection of alternatives to its plan, “Engineers want to build whatever is the cheapest way to get from Point A to Point B. It’s all about moving traffic.”
Tony Harris, governmental relations manager for ALDOT, disputes that assertion. Harris says the transportation department continues to consider changes to the plan as presented, but that alternatives such as trenching and relocation are not feasible due to considerations of time — the overpasses and ramps are deteriorating and increasingly unsafe, and developing an alternative plan would take years — and cost.
“We’ve looked at a lot of options,” says Harris. “I don’t know what more we could consider that we haven’t already. If cost was not a factor, [trenching] could be explored. But there’s just too much work that would be required on either end of the elevated portion. I just don’t see it as being practical.”
“The way they want to build it”
Mohl has written of the “destructive consequences of urban interstates” and their “severe damage to housing, businesses and neighborhoods.” He says that convincing state transportation departments to make such considerations a part of their planning and construction processes is an uphill battle, and that ALDOT’s approach to I-20/59 is no different.
“They’ve already decided what they want to do,” says Mohl. “They say they look at the social impacts of construction, but they really don’t.”
As Weld has reported, organized opposition to the ALDOT plan is growing, based on both social and economic issues. Residents of the Norwood neighborhood, businesses in the Norwood Industrial District — where about 300 companies employ a combined total of approximately 2,000 people — and officials of the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex all have expressed concerns about various aspects of the plan.
Meanwhile, grassroots opponents are incorporating all of those concerns into their efforts, pushing alternative proposals and mulling options for delaying or stopping construction, including litigation. In many respects, their rhetoric mirrors Mohl’s language about the destructive nature of interstates and the dangers of what they see as an outmoded approach to setting transportation priorities for the 21st century. One of the chief spokesmen for those opponents is Joseph Baker, the founder of the Facebook group I Believe in Birmingham and a leader of Rethink 20/59; both groups have been at the forefront of the social media-fueled efforts against ALDOT.
“It doesn’t move the city forward,” Baker says of the ALDOT plan. “It does not acknowledge changing trends in urban planning and infrastructure development. Look at other cities around the country and the world. They’re trying to minimize the impact of highways on the urban fabric, concentrating on walkable spaces and the vitality of neighborhoods. ALDOT’s plan does not contribute to that. It’s more likely to destroy value than to enhance it.”
ALDOT’s Harris says such statements ignore the department’s ongoing efforts to solicit comments from the public — and its willingness to incorporate those comments into the I-20/59 plan. As reported last week, ALDOT agreed to a request by the Norwood neighborhood to keep open one street previously slated for closing and is looking at another. The department also is strongly considering addressing the key concern of the Norwood Industrial District by not eliminating the 31st Street ramps. In addition, according to Harris, ALDOT has added features to the construction plan that will make the re-decked overpasses safer and more aesthetically pleasing. Mohl dismisses these concessions as so much window dressing.
“They’ve made minor cosmetic changes, and they’re going to promise a few more,” he says. “Then they’re going to build it the way they want to build it.”
Looking for leadership
The best hope of changing that outcome, Mohl says, is pressure from the public, backed by key leaders of government and business. He says the business community, in particular, is crucial, because they understand and can communicate the potentially huge economic impact of choosing one plan over another.
But while the businesses of the Norwood Industrial District are becoming more vocal in their concerns, the leading lights of Birmingham’s corporate community have chosen not to enter the fray. Most conspicuous in that respect is the Birmingham Business Alliance. The lead economic development organization for the Birmingham region, BBA bills itself as the “unifying voice” of local business. David Rickey, senior vice president of communications for the BBA, was reached by text message while traveling on business and asked to comment for this story.
“Clearly, we acknowledge that this is a significant issue,” Rickey replied, “but we do not have a position at this time.”
Opponents of the ALDOT plan have expressed frustration that other key business development and planning organizations have not stepped forward to take leadership roles in promoting — if not demanding — alternative solutions. Mentioned most frequently in that regard are REV Birmingham — whose mission is to promote economic development in the downtown area and the city’s neighborhood commercial districts — and the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham, which is the lead planning organization for Jefferson, Shelby, Blount, St. Clair, Walker and Chilton counties, with responsibilities that include transportation planning.
“Access to downtown is important, as is making the best pedestrian experience possible,” says REV Chief Executive Officer David Fleming, stressing that the REV board has not taken an official position on I-20/59 and that his comments reflect his professional opinion. “If I could wave a magic wand, that entire section of interstate would be moved to the north. That would keep access to downtown, and also open up a significant amount of land for redevelopment. I think the benefit to the city and state would be far greater in that scenario than in what’s being proposed.
“Since ALDOT says that can’t happen,” Fleming adds, “my position is that REV needs to work with ALDOT and all other stakeholders to come up with best solution. If there is an opportunity for a different outcome, we would like that.”
RPC Executive Director Charles Ball points out that his organization “doesn’t have a vote on what happens” with I-20/59. Ball says he is “fairly confident” that ALDOT will “do the right thing” after concluding its public involvement process and gauging the comments it receives.
“I don’t know that ALDOT is necessarily as recalcitrant as some people seem to believe that they are,” says Ball. “I don’t know what the ultimate solution might look like, but I’m cautiously optimistic that a solution can be found that is acceptable to all concerned.”
What it takes
Can the ALDOT plan for I-20/59 be substantially altered or stopped? Raymond Mohl says that outcomes in other cities show it can happen — if the opposition is well-organized, cohesive and willing to do things like write letters, stage protests and hire lawyers. Whether that will transpire in Birmingham remains to be seen, despite the determination of opponents like Joseph Baker.
“I think we’re headed toward litigation,” Baker says. “At a bare minimum, we need a plan from ALDOT that addresses a majority of the concerns that have been raised. Based on what we’ve seen up to now, it looks like the courts may be our best hope.”
But lawsuits take time, and time is not on the side of the opposition. There are other problems as well, starting with the fact that the opposition is coming from three sources — the Norwood neighborhood, the Norwood Industrial District and the grassroots opponents led by I Believe in Birmingham and Rethink 20/59 — that, while they share some of the same concerns, are coordinated only loosely, if at all.
This is especially true as it concerns the business group, which is focused almost exclusively on keeping the 31st Street entrance and exit ramps open. There is concern that if ALDOT makes that concession, opposition from the Norwood Industrial District goes away — though it should be noted that one of that group’s leaders, Betsy Saab, does not rule out the possibility of remaining part of a larger protest effort.
“We’re real proud of being part of Norwood,” Saab says. “If the time comes when we need to join efforts, we’ll look at that.”
Another problem opponents of the ALDOT plan confront is resources. Absent even one strong, deep-pocketed ally in the business community, the opposition must rely on enthusiasm to carry the day. That commodity tends to wane in a protracted fight.
Still, there are numerous examples of successful efforts in other cities — to win substantial changes, to tear down or relocate highways, to find solutions that all reasonable parties find some reason to celebrate. There is also a potential willingness on ALDOT’s part to extend its public involvement process to find, in Tony Harris’s words, “changes that improve the project.” While highly skeptical of the kind of changes that might yield, Mohl says nothing will happen unless the public remains vocal.
“It has to come from the community,” he says. “You don’t necessarily need a lot of people, or even resources, in opposition. You just need to be dedicated and smart and have an issue that you won’t let go of.”