Rotary Trail

Birmingham, AL

Size: 5 miles

Rotary Trail is an eastward extension of Downtown Birmingham’s award-winning Railroad Park that runs along a depressed rail bed known as “the cut.” The linear park connects Red Mountain Park to Sloss Furnace and is part of the Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System Master Plan—a visionary, long-term plan for knitting Jefferson County together that includes more than 250 miles of greenways and trails and 500 miles of streets open to cars, bicycles and pedestrians. The Magic City Gateway that stood at the train station until the mid-1950s is being recreated by the same group that built the original and will further emphasize Birmingham’s development around locomotives, as opposed to steamships, which inspired the design’s rail-bed-to-river association. Part of the trail’s success is its engagement with the surrounding residential and commercial spaces and various points of interest, such as boardwalks, wall treatments clad with iron ore, limestone and coal and a small outdoor amphitheater. Various seating, including raised areas, tables and chairs, will be dispersed throughout the trail, along with custom bike racks designed by a local business specifically for the trail system. Entry points via steps and ramps at each gateway are marked by red illuminated street numbers on steel vertical columns. At its lowest points, the 26-foot-wide rail bed will be raised six feet to make it a comfortable environment for pedestrians. The trail will include energy efficient LED up-lighting on the gateway walls and trees. Security and a maintenance program similar to that of Railroad Park will be implemented for the trail as well. To protect stream buffers and mitigate storm-water runoff, which is crucial for improving the urban stream water quality, stylized stonework reminiscent of creek beds function as storm-water swales that allow water to be filtered and absorbed into the ground. Awards: Water Conservation Award - Alabama Wildlife Federation, 2015 “Commercial Real Estate Deal of the Year” - Birmingham Business Journal, 2016 “Best of Birmingham List” - Atlanta Magazine, 2016

Scope of Services
Engineering
Environmental
Geotechnical
Landscape
Planning
Surveying