Montgomery development news

[bystander1]

Here's an interesting fact sheet on the new convention center hotel under construction downtown.

http://www.visitingmontgomery.com/PD...ctSheetRed.pdf

[thoraudio]

I-65 through the heart of MTGY to be improved..... expect hellashish traffic for the next 4 years

I'm glad I get off at the Northern Bypass

New Construction In Store For Interstate 65 In Montgomery

Some good news and bad news for Montgomery drivers; get ready for major construction on Interstate 65 between the Northern Boulevard and the Hope Hull exit which is about a 3 mile stretch. City leaders believes it'll be worth it in the long run.

The Alabama Department of Transportation will decide in the next few days when it'll start widening that part of the interstate to 6 lanes. Widening that section of 65 was already on the books before Hyundai came to town but since then there's been an urgency to get moving on the project.

"Montgomery has blossomed into a metropolitan city. We've added almost 8,000 new jobs between Hyundai and the tier one suppliers. There's a lot more traffic on 65 headed to Hope Hull and north and south on 65," said Montgomery Area Chamber Senior Vice President Anna Buckalew.

Original plans call for construction to start this month but one D-O-T official says it'll be later this year.

Reporter: Bryan Henry

[bystander1]

Let's hope these road projects finally happen this year...




January 4, 2006

Road projects galore in store for 2006
By Sebastian Kitchen
Montgomery Advertiser

Miles and miles of roads wind through the tri-county area, and every year officials must decide which ones are most in need of repair.

The lists have been compiled and the entities expect to spend millions of dollars this year to repave, widen and improve city and county roads, and state and federal highways.

The most extensive will be a $47 million Interstate 65 widening project from Hope Hull to the Alabama River bridge, expected to begin this spring. The project will extend north and southbound lanes to three lanes each from two, a three-phase project expected to be completed in two years.

Officials said the project is good for business and will help motorists going to and from the new Hyundai plant.

"It's going to mean a much easier commute or traveling experience through Montgomery in the long run, but in the short-term it means some construction, and drivers will need to drive slower," said Tony Harris, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Transportation.

For projects on sparsely traveled city and county roads, officials said they do not expect much inconvenience to drivers.

"The inconveniences are generally on the major thoroughfares and those jobs are generally planned in such a way to limit the inconvenience to citizens," said Jeff Downes, executive assistant to Mayor Bobby Bright. "The residential (projects) are done rapidly, street by street, and done during the course of the daytime when people are at work."

County Engineer George Speake expects little inconvenience for drivers because the contractor uses "proper traffic control able to keep traffic moving through while he is doing the work."

Downes and Speake said the projects are determined by staff and elected officials and are based on need and priority.

The city improvements include widening of Zelda Road, Perry Hill Road and Atlanta Highway.

Speake said they are improving some of the streets in the Rolling Hills area and expect to resurface the east Montgomery subdivision next year.

Speake said the county spends about $1.2 million a year resurfacing county roads. He said the amount is pretty typical, but is higher some years when funding allows.

Speake and Downes said the expected cost and planned number of projects is typical.

Downes said the city will spend about $2.85 million for projects on major thoroughfares and at least $500,000 to pave residential streets. He said the amount for residential work could be closer to $1 million.

The residential work continues throughout the year, Downes said, and the start of the other projects depends on the authorization of federal funds.

Downes said the projects will be split between city crews and contractors. He said city crews could do the work about 50 percent cheaper.

"It is sort of tempting to utilize our crews for as much as we financially can, but on the flip side, using city crews limits the number of projects you can do," he said.

The city's residential paving is funded through gas tax dollars and the general fund. The money is divided into 10 pots, one for each of the nine council districts and one for the mayor. City staff, the mayor and council members collaborate to decide the fate of the funds.

Other projects are funded with federal money and cannot be initiated without authorization. Those projects are approved by the Montgomery Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which consists of elected and appointed officials from cities and counties in Montgomery, Elmore and Autauga counties.



2006 TRI COUNTY ROAD WORK

Major projects for the city of Montgomery this year:

Perry Hill Road: Widening and paving from Harrison Road to Interstate Park Drive; $700,000.

Zelda Road: Widening and paving from Carter Hill Road to Ann Street; $700,000.

Various downtown streets: Paving and signal improve ments; $850,000.

Atlanta Highway: Paving and widening from Mountain View Drive to East Boulevard; $300,000.

Woodley Road: Paving and improvements at Virginia Loop Road; $300,000.

Note: All of the above city projects are subject to federal funding authorization and the start date depends on receipt of the funding.
There are plans for more than $500,000 in residential paving, which will begin in January and last through out the year.


Montgomery County projects planned for 2006

Old Pike Road: Resurfacing from U.S. 82 to Carter Hill Road, which is about 11.5 miles. The work will include resurfacing, striping and shoulder work. Work will begin this spring and run through about mid-summer, depending on the contractor.

Marler Road: Shoulder repair work from Alabama 110 to U.S. 80.

Old McGehee Road: Shoulder repair work from U.S. 331 to Butler Mill Road.

Meriwether Trail: Shoulder repair work from Alabama 94 to Grady. Also expected to be resurfaced in 2007.

Rolling Hills subdivision: Work currently is under way in the subdivision. Crews are digging out some of damaged areas of the roads in the subdivision and re pairing them. Plans are to resurface in 2007.

The resurfacing projects have been started and are expected to be completed this spring.


ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS, 2006

Autauga County
* Bridge replacement at Alabama 14 over Autauga Creek in Prattville, $2.5 million, January completion

* I-65 repaving from Alabama 14 to just north of County Road 77, $5.5 million, January completion

* Bridge replacement at at Alabama 14 over Mulberry Creek, $2.1 million, January completion


Elmore County
* U.S. 231 widening from Charles Avenue to Main Street with intersection improvements at River Oaks Boulevard in Wetumpka, $1.5 million, May start, May 2007 completion


Montgomery County

* Additional lanes and new bridge on U.S. 331 from one mile south of Country Road 118 to Snowdoun, $9.1 million, May completion

* Additional lanes on U.S. 31 from County Road 42 to U.S. 80 in Montgomery, $6.2 million, May completion

* Additional lanes, new bridge and intersection on U.S. 231 at the Northern Bypass in Montgomery, $17.9 million, August completion

* Additional lanes from LeGrand to one mile south of Pleasant Grove Road, $11 million, January start, September 2007 completion

* I-85 median guardrail crossover protection from Alabama 126 at Waugh to Alabama 229, $1.4 million, January start, May completion

* I-65 Alabama River Bridge widing from Bell Street to south of Alabama 152, $11.6 million, February start, October 2007 completion

* Atlanta Highway widening and bridge replacement at Oliver Creek, $2 million, February start, February 2007 completion

* U.S. 31 bridge replacement at CSX Railroad, $750,000, February start, August 2007 completion

* I-65 widening from U.S. 80 to Fairview Avenue in Montgomery, $21.5 million, March start, September 2007 completion

* I-65 widening from Fairview Avenue to the Alabama River in Montgomery, $14.25 million, June start, January 2008 completion

* Additional lanes from Alabama 94 to LeGrand, $10.5 million, August start, April 2008 completion

* Montgomery Outer Loop from Carter Hill Road to Alabama 110, $10.8 million, August start, August 2008 completion

* U.S. 231 rest area replacement at Pine Level, $3.5 million, August start, February 2008 completion

[neilson]

* Montgomery Outer Loop from Carter Hill Road to Alabama 110, $10.8 million, August start, August 2008 completion

COME ON;

We all know Auburn will win a National Championship before that project is ever completed.

[bystander1]

yep, I agree with you on that one...

[thoraudio]

Zelda Road: Widening and paving from Carter Hill Road to Ann Street; $700,000.

Atlanta Highway: Paving and widening from Mountain View Drive to East Boulevard; $300,000.

There is no extra room on Zelda road.... Any wider and you'll be driving through parking lot of Down The Street and Moe's...

The ATL ain't much better....

[bystander1]

All of these projects are well needed, but one in particular that desperately needs to be done isn't even on the list...

EAST BLVD. OVERPASSES @ I-85 !!!!

HOW IN THE WORLD CAN THIS MIND-BOGGLING TRAFFIC BOTTLENECK CONTINUE TO BE OVERLOOKED BY BOTH ALDOT AND THE CITY--MONTH AFTER MONTH, YEAR AFTER YEAR--WITH NO ACTION TAKEN TO WIDEN THE BRIDGES OVER THE INTERSTATE, IS JUST TOTALLY BEYOND ASININE!!!




...ok, I just had to get that out...

[thoraudio]

Centennial Hill is one of our few downtown neighborhoods. It starts 1 block away from the new RSA headquarters building.

Centennial Hill has plan for future

By Sebastian Kitchen
Montgomery Advertiser

Centennial Hill was once a beacon of black life in Montgomery, offering housing, education, religion, medicine and business to residents. Prominent figures including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Vernon Johns and Rufus Lewis once lived there, and musicians Clarence Carter and Nat King Cole were born in the neighborhood.

In recent decades, however, crime and abandoned buildings have outpaced growth and development.

Now, residents, city officials and outside interests are working together to restore the historic area. City planners and representatives of APD Inc., a small planning and development firm, presented ideas to residents, answered questions and listened to concerns Thursday night.

Jesse Wiles, president of ADP, said the company would work with residents and the city to construct a plan and move forward.

"I can guarantee you that if you go into a neighborhood in Montgomery that you like, there is a plan," Wiles said.

The presenters spoke of the historic significance of the city and returning the neighborhood to its prominence. That can be done, Wiles said, by repairing homes and historic structures that are salvageable and demolishing others beyond repair and replacing them with comparable structures.

Wiles and ADP have helped redevelop neighborhoods similar to Centennial Hill in other black communities in Southeastern cities including Jacksonville and Gainesville, Fla., and Spartanburg, S.C.

"If someone else can do it, you can do it, too," Wiles said. "What you want to happen in Centennial Hill is already happening in other parts of the country."

In the future, the entities want to create the ability for entities in the community, including the Centennial Hill Gardening Project, to build and rehabilitate more housing.

Donald Jenkins, executive director of the project, said they are about to finish their first house. After they finish rehabilitating the house, he said they want to sell it to a low- to moderate-income family and hopefully a first-time homeowner.

Jenkins said 457 Ross St. would be the model home for the program. He said they have been working on the houses for about a year. The process has been slow because of dealing with the federal government. The rehabilitation of the current houses is funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"It's a slow process, but we think it is moving in a positive direction," Jenkins said.

Jenkins said they have not built any infill housing in the neighborhood. The current work is rehabilitating current houses. He said they hope to introduce affordable housing to people in the community or to attract homeowners into Centennial Hill.

Wiles and city officials agree there is a lot of work to do and encouraged residents to be patient. He said it took years for the neighborhood to deteriorate and it will take several to rebuild.

Ken Groves, director of planning and development for the city, said there should be a major difference in the neighborhood in five years.

Councilwoman Janet May said the work is just part of the plan for Centennial Hill.

"I think it's great that everybody is interested in Centennial Hill," she said. "That place is in a great location. It has great assets."

She said the neighborhood includes Alabama State University and borders downtown.

"It has great potential," she said. "What we need to do is get homeowners interested in Centennial Hill. The problem is absentee landlords."

May said 58 percent of people in the neighborhood rent.

City planner Linda Wool said work on the master plan for the entire neighborhood continues. The plan will address crime, zoning, housing, land use and other issues.

[thoraudio]

unofficial word on the street (what does that mean?) is that 100 Commerce St. will be reborn as a Hampton Inn/Suites.

[bystander1]

Cool! That would be great for Downtown.

[HSVTiger]

in regard to MGM slide back to third, the mayor shows his ass.
This change in count is due to relocation from Katrina.
Brighthead lead the way a few years ago boasting about the assumed
second spot, and even boasting that MGM would be larger than Birmingham
by 2010.

City officials downplay Montgomery's potential slide to the third spot.

"There may be a little bit of bragging rights and reason to poke out your chest, but there are other things you can be proud of instead of whether you are the largest, second-largest or third-largest," said Michael Briddell, executive assistant to Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright. "I guarantee Mobile does not have the world's most automated manufacturing plant."


Hey mayor do you really want to head to head to any of the 4 major cities in this state? Montgomery has just now began to get where Mobile, Birmingham
and Huntsville have been for 10 years. And in reality the city may be third but metro size you are 4th and slipping

[thoraudio]

sounds like somebody's got a chip on their shoulder.... after the Katrina stuff stabilizes, MTGY will again move back above Mobile (assuming it falls below), and if trends hold, will move above Bham in the several years.

And eventually (if trends hold), Huntsville will pass MTGY as well.

What the mayors assistant was pointing out was that a temporary skewing of numbers because evacu.... displaced persons, does not diminish the gains MTGY has made in the past few years.

Whyfore all the hate, can't we be glad that Huntsville and Montgomery are growing?

[pkp]

What an ass - who cares what rank the city is. Regardless of size of the city, I seriously doubt MGM will ever be even close to the size of B'hams metro. Doesn't mean its not a better city - why even bring it up? I'll be staying the night in MGM next week, by the way. Unfortunatley East MGM since the Embassy is booked and even with my Diamond guaranteed room, really expensive right now anyway.

[bystander1]

Originally Posted by thoraudio

sounds like somebody's got a chip on their shoulder.... after the Katrina stuff stabilizes, MTGY will again move back above Mobile (assuming it falls below), and if trends hold, will move above Bham in the several years.

And eventually (if trends hold), Huntsville will pass MTGY as well.

What the mayors assistant was pointing out was that a temporary skewing of numbers because evacu.... displaced persons, does not diminish the gains MTGY has made in the past few years.

Whyfore all the hate, can't we be glad that Huntsville and Montgomery are growing?

Thoraudio, some on this forum are just haters of other cities regardless of what's going on there...positive or negative.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm more into new buildings (skyscrapers, highrises) and major developments in the cities...not population numbers. In fact, as I've posted many times before, the strange coincidence is that it seems like a city doesn't get the big developments until it starts losing population. For example, in the eighties, Birmingham built at least 3 major buildings downtown during the time it was losing population. Mobile got the state's tallest building when it lost population and went to third.
Gaining population wasn't a factor in order to get those projects, which enhanced those cities' skyline.

Originally Posted by pkp

What an ass - who cares what rank the city is. ...why even bring it up?

I agree, pkp. It's great to see Alabama's cities get new developments; especially in the downtown areas...Birmingham's loft developments, Mobile's own RSA Tower, cruise boat terminal and condo development, Montgomery's Convention Center, luxury hotel, lofts and riverwalk developments, even Huntsville's building an Embassy hotel downtown.

There's no need to even talk about some 4 city rivalry because both Huntsville and Montgomery are in the same boat when it comes to this---both are waiting for a 30+ downtown.

Don't hate, congratulate.

[neilson]

i take pride that huntsville has nothing close to the current troubles on south blvd. I really want the southside of montgomery to come back.

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by pkp

What an ass - who cares what rank the city is. Regardless of size of the city, I seriously doubt MGM will ever be even close to the size of B'hams metro. Doesn't mean its not a better city - why even bring it up? I'll be staying the night in MGM next week, by the way. Unfortunatley East MGM since the Embassy is booked and even with my Diamond guaranteed room, really expensive right now anyway.

Actually it matters a great deal in government funding for roads, schools and retail. Birmingham crossing the 1 million mark puts it on a whole different level
in regard to these items.
It seems the mayor's assistant is taking the first shot across the bow.
It was huge deal to Bright to be able to claim #2. I think all will agree that Hyundai has helped the entire state, but Mobile's ports, Birmingham's medical and Huntsville's high tech have done more for a lot longer.

[pkp]

I don't disagree that population helps funding - but from terms of some sort of bragging rights, I don't get it. Pre-Katrina New Orleans was larger than Atlanta -but Atlanta's metro is still four times as large. How can they be compared and does the fact that the city of New Orleans has more folks living in the city proper help get any more attention than Atlanta. Orlando is smaller than Montgomery and Mobile - I guess both mayors should start bragging about that - except metro Orlando is 2 -3 times the size of either MGM or MOB. Maybe not good comparisons, but just goes to show how worthless city population stats are.

[thoraudio]

Coming soon from Apple - the IDrama

capable of creating something from nothing!

Compatible with Mountainouttamolehill 2.0 and soon to be supporting TeapotTempest v. 4

[bystander1]

Originally Posted by pkp

I don't disagree that population helps funding - but from terms of some sort of bragging rights, I don't get it. Pre-Katrina New Orleans was larger than Atlanta -but Atlanta's metro is still four times as large. How can they be compared and does the fact that the city of New Orleans has more folks living in the city proper help get any more attention than Atlanta. Orlando is smaller than Montgomery and Mobile - I guess both mayors should start bragging about that - except metro Orlando is 2 -3 times the size of either MGM or MOB. Maybe not good comparisons, but just goes to show how worthless city population stats are.

Yes. Neither do I disagree that population helps funding. Many people in Montgomery still consider Mobile the 2nd largest city. Obviously, they don't pay much attention to those census numbers.
And mayors are mayors. That's just how they talk.

Like pkp said, as far as bragging goes, who would have more reason to do so? Orlando? Or Mobile and Montgomery just because they are larger?

Yes, I can see where bragging about city size rankings could be important to cities that have held those positions for decades--like Birmingham and Mobile--battling for 1st. But in the case of Montgomery and Mobile, the 2000 census numbers were so close, who knows, maybe Mobile was under-counted from the get-go.

Then again, the 2010 count may show the cities still holding their current positions. Then what? I don't think Mobile would crumble to the ground if it did...neither would Montgomery if the two cities switched back to their historic positions.

[bystander1]

Originally Posted by thoraudio

unofficial word on the street (what does that mean?) is that 100 Commerce St. will be reborn as a Hampton Inn/Suites.

Thoraudio, in your best guess estimate, what are the chances of this going through percentage-wise?