Old Woodward Project Delayed

From The City of Birmingham: The City of Birmingham’s Old Woodward reconstruction project, originally planned for this summer, will now take place during the spring of 2018. On Monday, April 24, the Birmingham City Commission voted to reject bids the City had received for the project, and to rebid in the fall.

The section along Old Woodward from Oakland to Brown will be the first phase of downtown infrastructure improvements that will span over the next several years. The area will receive extensive upgrades, including: new sewers, water main, pavement, street lights, traffic signals, planters and parking meters. Due to a demanding construction season, the City received a low number of bids to complete the work in the summer of 2017 and they were significantly higher than expected.

“While the infrastructure along this section of Old Woodward is old, everything is in safe and operable working condition,” said Birmingham City Engineer, Paul O’Meara. “The water mains in this area are under low pressure and functioning normally so postponing this project a year is not detrimental.”

The revised project timeline will allow for additional companies to bid on the project. In addition, it will give Birmingham merchants more time to prepare for the project and develop incentives to be offered throughout construction.

“We initially hoped to get started this year to make the downtown area more pedestrian friendly and improve accessibility. These are areas we look forward to addressing next spring,” said Birmingham City Manager, Joe Valentine.

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