Maxine Herring Parker Bridge
The Finley Avenue flyover or Finely bypass is a proposal to extend Finley Avenue eastward, helping connect the neighborhood of Collegeville to traffic throroughfares. Currently Collegeville is entirely cut off from the rest of the city by railroad grade crossings. The issue came to a head in 2000 when an elderly couple died in a house fire while a fire truck waited for a train to pass.
Currently Finley dead ends just past U. S. Highway 31 at 27th Street North. Between it and the beginning of F. L. Shuttlesworth Drive in Collegeville lie two sets of Southern Railway trackage. The proposal has been discussed since the 1960s without progress.
Birmingham City Council member Maxine Parker, prompted by the availability of federal stimulus funds for road and bridge projects, helped to bring the proposal forward in 2009. She pushed the Council to pass a resolution in support of the project and got city engineers to begin work. In April 2009 she met with Congressman Artur Davis and secured a $10 million commitment.
The current proposal from the Alabama Department of Transportation is to extend Finley Boulevard for four miles along the southern edge of Collegeville to connect to Alabama Highway 79 near East Lake Boulevard. Funding for the project is believed to be secure. The first phase, estimated at $32 million, would connect the Boulevard to Fred L. Shuttlesworth Drive. Construction of that segment could start as early as 2011. Phases 2 and 3 would make the connection to Highway 79. No time frame has been set for that work.
References
- MacDonald, Ginny (July 6, 2009) "Alabama Department of Transportation sets first public meeting on three plans for proposed Finley bypass." Birmingham News
- "Birmingham City Councilwoman Maxine Parker's legacy may be Finley Boulevard flyover to rescue Collegeville neighborhood." editorial (July 18, 2009) Birmingham News