Hollywood pedestrian bridge moving forward again

The special issues committee revived discussion at tonight's meeting of pedestrian access to the Hollywood Boulevard bridge over U.S. 280.

Mike Kaczorowski of the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham presented the committee with an option to use an APPLE (Advanced Planning, Programming and Logical Engineering) grant to conduct an engineering and feasibility study of solutions to improve both vehicle and pedestrian use of the bridge.

The APPLE Grant, administered by the Metropolitan Planning Organization, will assess existing conditions, rights-of-way and utilities, as well as develop design concepts for the project, up to $60,000. The city requesting the study must pay 20 percent of the cost.

“It helps cities feel better about getting a big federal project,” Kaczorowski said.

Ward 5 Representative Jennifer Andress said Mountain Brook city council is willing to help with the project and has already approved paying half of the 20 percent fee. This would leave Homewood paying up to $6,000 for the study.

“I think this could be a huge regional success,” Andress said.

The scope of the study will extend from Malaga Avenue in Homewood to Mountain Brook Village. Kaczorowski said the APPLE study will take nine months, so potential solutions could be available by summer 2017. Kaczorowski said the firm that conducts the study can provide options with and without the use of federal money, in case Homewood and Mountain Brook want to use local funds to move the project more quickly.

Andress added that ALDOT may be able to provide some funds for construction as well. One issue that will have to be addressed is working around the cemetery that is located near the bridge. Options for that can also be included in the study.

The special issues committee sent the matter to the finance committee to discuss funding up to $12,000, with Mountain Brook paying half that amount, at its Nov. 28 meeting. Pending committee approval, the issue will have to go before the full council before the APPLE study can move forward.

The special issues committee also continued discussion on noise and odor issues in West Homewood. Ward 4 Representative Barry Smith said both Dean Foods and Buffalo Rock have completed testing on their sites for odor issues, and Dean will send a report to the council on Monday while Buffalo Rock will by Dec. 15.

Smith also recently met with residents in the area and said that issues with noise at Buffalo Rock continue, but the residents did not feel that another meeting with the company would be helpful in the matter.

“From my perspective, the thing that has been addressed … is the light situation," Smith said. “In terms of the odor and noise, I think those problems are still present.”

Ward 2 Representative Mike Higginbotham added in that he has been working with Jefferson County about unrelated odor issues after a mechanical failure at a sewage treatment plant. He said as of last Thursday, crews were working on a temporary fix while waiting to receive parts for the permanent fix to the problem. He noted that the county said the problem was not caused by the area's continuing drought.

The special issues committee decided to carry over the West Homewood smell issue as they await the reports from Buffalo Rock, Dean Foods and chemical testing firm Volatile Analysis.