The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-26
FAITH STREET THE FAVOR|TE LOCATION FOR NEXT V|ADUCT
Engineers and Commissioners Have Been Studying Ques-
 ton From Every Angle

That Twenty fourth street is slated for the new viaduct is the belief of two members of the city commission, who say research proves it the log ical site, and that other thorough fares may as well be discounted for the improvement now as at any other time.
 While they were talking about it Wednesday morning they said analy- sis of the subject had been going on for a long time, and the more it is studied the more apparent IL becomes that the choice of Twenty fourth street is obvious.
 Summarizing the situation. from what could be learned Wedne sday, the status is about as follows:
 It is desirable to raise the grade of the railroads west of Twentieth street, but such raising would be the equivalent of eleyating some 10 or 15 city blocks, including street in tersections. The price is prohibitive to the railroads at present. Birming- ham must have better communication of the north and south sections of the city, now divided by the Louisville and Nashville and other railroads. If the roads cannot finance general track raising at the present time the scene switches to streets east of Twentieth. The resultant entailed ex-
  teth street, because of damage to very valuable property, is considered out of the question. Twenty-first street has viaduct. Twenty second street has a good substitute for d viaduct Twenty-third street is not open. Twenty-fourth street, accord ingly, is considered the logical site. Less Expensive.
 Estimators say it might be some what less expensive to place the via duct on Twenty-third street because there is sharper declivity at the ap- breaches. and so there would be less property depreciation, but the rail- roads want to close a grade crossing if they don't do anything else, and will bend every effort to pitch the Niaduct at a point where this can be realized. Twenty-fourth street is paved from Avenue q on the north all the way to the meeting With the north and south highway, and is a straight street from Tenth avenue, south, to Water street on the north, and. save for a block or two, there is hardly block of street car line on It.. Most of Twenty-third street is not paved
 Others Given Consideration.
 Twenty fifth street was given se- rious consideration. as. was Twenty sixth. but were eliminated because of the many extra blocks little children would have to travel in reaching the schools. Twenty-fourth street serves communication to north and south side schools better than any other. save, perhaps Twenty-third, and the city has no right of way across Twenty third, and might become in volved in a long and tedious litiga . tiou were the attempt made to force the way across. As the matter stands municipal and railroad authorities are cooperating in the most friendly way for the improvement.
 Railway civil engineers are prepar- ing data, and the city is equipped with compiled reports by the present and past municipal engineers. These will be given the most careful con sideration in the general meeting of those interested at the end of the month.
 Eventually, it is said. the railway raising will materialize. It has been found the best thing to do in many large cities, and especially this Is the case in the matter of the railways paralleling First avenue westward from Twentieth street, for that would let many streets go under without grade crossings. but the cost, for some years to come, is said to be pro- hibitive.
 The expectation was expressed that the style of the viaduct would be sim liar to that of the one connecting North and South Twentyfirst street, for a uniformity of construction in the viaducts is desired