Photo by Kamp Fender.
Erosion and debris are seen on Vestavia Hills’ Massey Road, just off of U.S. 31. The city plans to install sidewalks on the eastern side of the road, connecting U.S. 31 to Columbiana Road, and to widen the road from about 10-foot lanes to 12-foot lanes.
From Massey Road to the pedestrian bridge connecting Wald Park to the city’s library, four projects in the city of Vestavia Hills involve a combination of city, state and federal money.
Each project is an 80/20 match, with 80 percent of the funding coming from federal and state resources and the other 20 percent of the funding coming from the city, City Manager Jeff Downes said.
Two projects — Massey Road and the pedestrian bridge — were identified in the city’s 2002 master sidewalk plan, while the other two — a tunnel connecting the Liberty Park Athletic Complex to the Sicard Hollow Athletic Complex and a walking path connecting the new community center to Wald Park — are relatively new projects.
PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE
The pedestrian bridge project, which received earmarked money from Congress as a “high-priority project,” started in 2004 and was planned as a bridge to connect the east side to the west side of Vestavia across U.S. 31, Downes said.
“This whole connectivity issue is a driving force behind many of these [issues],” Downes said.
The project now is slated to connect Wald Park, which is undergoing massive transformation as part of the Community Spaces Plan, and the Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest.
Current leadership at the Alabama Department of Transportation, in their review of submitted designs, told the city to go back and adjust the bridge to make it more ADA accessible. There will now be an elevator on the library side, and the bridge will end on a slope at Wald Park, Downes said.
The cost of the bridge is roughly $1.4 million. Half of that cost will be paid with the remaining “High-Priority Project” funding, and the city has applied for funding to cover the other $700,000. About $280,000 of city funds have been put toward the project.
The final designs for the bridge will be submitted in June, with bids opening in December, City Engineer Christopher Brady said. Construction could start as early as next March, with an estimated six-month timeline for the building of the bridge, Brady said.
MASSEY ROAD
The plan for Massey Road is to install sidewalks on the eastern side of the road, connecting U.S. 31 to Columbiana Road, and to widen the road from about 10-foot lanes to 12-foot lanes, Brady said. In addition to that work, the city will also look to rebuild the retaining wall and install sidewalks on Columbiana Road after the project.
This project is funded in part through the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program and is currently in the final design phase. The city acquired funding in 2012.
In late January and early February, the city was working with utility companies to determine where and how to move utilities in connection with the project, Brady said.
Construction may start by the end of 2019, and the work should take between six to nine months, Brady said.
LIBERTY PARK TUNNEL
A $350,000 project to build a tunnel connecting the two athletic complexes in Liberty Park is out for bid, with a deadline at the end of March, Downes said.
There will also be relocation of utilities there, but construction could be underway by mid-2019 and completed by the end of theyear, Brady said.
Connecting the two fields will connect the baseball fields at the LPAC to the soccer fields at the SHAC, Downes said. The project was paid in part by a grant secured in 2014.
COMMUNITY SPACES CONNECTOR
The connecting sidewalk between the new community center and Wald Park should be constructed next summer, Downes said.
Grant funding was awarded in 2018, and the city has engaged an engineering firm to conduct the design work.
The project costs $350,000, with $280,000 coming from the federal Transportation Alternatives Program, and the other $70,000 coming from the city.
Downes said with ALDOT projects, it is not uncommon for a project to take five years from the awarding of funds to construction.
