Red Mountain Tunnel

The Red Mountain Tunnel was a proposed project to dig a tunnel through Red Mountain to carry highway traffic. In 1947 a Red Mountain Tunnel Advisory Board considered conflicting proposals from the Birmingham Department of Planning & Engineering and from the Alabama Highway Department. The city's engineer J. D. Webb, favored a route extending from 18th Street South while the state, which consulted with New York tunnel expert Ole Singstad, recommended using 22nd Street South.

A poll conducted by the State Highway Department showed a slight preference among drivers for improved access east of 20th Street. Representatives of the Birmingham Police Department wrote in favor of the 18th Street option.

On August 19, 1959 the Birmingham City Commission rejected a request by the Birmingham Downtown Improvement Association to contribute funding toward a traffic study for a route over or through the mountain. The Commission agreed not to "spend Birmingham taxpayers' money to give Mountain Brook travelers convenience." Commissioner Jabo Waggoner said that construction of the planned federal interstate system would do more to relieve traffic congestion. Commissioner Bull Connor added that the city was making improvements to the crossing at 20th Street South.

Efforts to expand traffic capacity over Red Mountain eventually resulted in the Red Mountain Expressway and the landmark Red Mountain cut, which was begun in 1962 and completed in 1969.

See also

• Birmingham Water Works Tunnel

References

• "Tunnel Board Pondering Two Routes Under Red Mountain" (February 1947) The Birmingham News - via Birmingham Rewound
• "City gives loud 'No' to Red Mountain study" (August 19, 1959) The Birmingham News - via Birmingham Rewound