Hollywood Boulevard multimodal bridge (Birmingham, Homewood: university, cost, safety)

[jero23]

https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/i...er_us_280.html

A pedestrian bridge that will serve as a keystone to connect Homewood, Birmingham and Mountain Brook along Hollywood Boulevard could be open by mid-2019.

Adding a pedestrian bridge, separate from the two-lane vehicular bridge over U.S. 280, will improve safety for walkers, runners and cyclists who regularly traverse the area, said Homewood City Councilor Jennifer Andress, who is spearheading the project.

"We really know that runners, walkers and cyclists take their life in their hands whenever they go over that (existing Hollywood Boulevard) bridge," she said, adding the bridge has no shoulders and low railings.

The arched pedestrian bridge is projected to cost $1.165 million, Andress said. She said the structure will be similar to the pedestrian bridge at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

Although it described as a "pedestrian" bridge in the news article. The design and specs shows it will be a multimodal component for the non-automotive form of transportation. There has been a cooperative district created around the corridor to design and implement the bridge and supporting infrastructure. Hopefully, this will encourage Homewood, Mountain Brook, and Birmingham to implement more complete streets measures allowing pedestrians, runners, and cyclists to use Hollywood Boulevard.