HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The skybridge is months away from officially breaking ground and there's a lot to know about the project. "We've built a ton of greenways throughout the city and there's missing links to connect them all up. this is a major one of those," Urban and Economic Director Shane Davis explains. "The project's main goal is it will be the hub for our entire greenway. So, connecting greenways over to John Hunt Park into the Five Points all the way up north to Alabama A&M University and south into South Huntsville and then the Holmes Avenue. The project design connects multimodal bulk bike decks, bike lanes and pedestrian sidewalks all the way west of Research Park. So, you really think about it, this area along the west side of the VBC provides some linkage for both pedestrian and bike activity throughout the city."
The parkway has been one of many barrier keeping pedestrians from accessing other parts of the city and this project looks to cure that. "When it comes to pedestrian mobility, we've unfortunately had a lot of fatalities of people trying to walk from the west side of the parkway, south side of Governors into downtown," Davis explains. "It's unfortunate. so, I think federal highways recognize that their US highways and state highways they're not safe to cross in a pedestrian manner, you know, so that's why our project scored really well. So, it's really to connect what we consider ladders of opportunity one that's recreation and be able to not be car dependent in these areas, but also those who must travel either by bike or about foot due to lack of transportation options, to have pedestrian connectivity."
The second benefit will see effects in neighborhoods miles away from the project. "The flood mitigation is a huge component of this project. I mean, the flood mitigation project, the channel widening that will occur with this skybridge project, it impacts residents all the way the way north into the Five points neighborhood and in the North Huntsville, so that Pin Hook Creek branch that comes through downtown is carrying stormwater all the way up from Alabama A&M," Davis shares. "So naturally when you have a choke point, we do have a choke point near the Von Braun center, and we have one really where the parkway and Governor's drive. you know, you have two branches coming in, so you can't help anybody, you know, upstream to fix downstream and help that. So, the flood mitigation piece is a huge component that gets overlooked, that helps people that do not even live downtown, you know, that has seen historic flooding at times to their properties."
Despite the benefits, there has been some concerns about the need for this project and based on social media post, the whole idea seems.... pointless.
One user on Reddit wrote:
“Not saying it is or isn’t worth it, but it doesn’t necessarily matter where the money comes from for someone to have the opinion it’s a waste of money. a waste of someone else’s money.”
Another says:
"This just seems crazy. who is going to cross it on a rainy Tuesday in December when the wind is whipping around? or on a hot July night? to go to Lowe Mill? I have never been either place and thought, 'if I could just walk, that would be great.'"
Davis explains while there has been some backlash, there has also been support. "So you know, part of the grant application process is, you know, the design of this project goes back over a decade and through that process a lot of community engagement, a lot of public meetings and the overwhelming support, you know, one of the biggest things that we get a lot of emails is when will this pedestrian access connectivity, you know, reconnect to these neighborhoods, to downtown start? so, there's a lot of support for it."
Davis took time to also address the concerns. "This is a growing community, population growth here is exponential and the growth that's going on do the jobs we've created to, you know, some people can question this investment versus investing funds, some other means, maybe more transportation? well, this is a mode of transportation for many people," Davis explains. Many of us in this corridor are very fortunate that most of our mode of transportation, our own personal vehicle, that's not the case for everybody. You know, we're going to be an inclusive community and be diverse and provide those options. We need to think about all transportation but of course, we're riding a bike or walking or riding, sharing travel lanes, each of the lanes, you know, all of those things that come into building a true mobility network for the community. They're all running in parallel and that's what I would tell the community is, you know, we've got a financial plan and a capital infrastructure plan. This is one of many things we're investing in. So, it's not taking away from a rec center or recreational facilities or delays some road projects. So, they're all running in parallel and that's the fortunate thing about Huntsville, which is we've got the ability to do that."