BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A $14.5 million federal grant awarded to Birmingham for roadway improvements in the city’s Historic 4th Avenue Black Business District has been withdrawn, city officials confirmed this week, halting major construction plans along the corridor.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Neighborhood Access and Equity grant, announced in March 2024, was intended to convert 15 blocks of 4th Avenue North from one-way to two-way traffic and reconnect neighborhoods severed by Interstate 65 construction in the 1960s.
About $2 million of the funding was released before the remainder was rescinded following the change in presidential administration, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during a recent visit to Birmingham.
“That funding was designed for a set of roadway improvements that would make it both safer for people driving, walking and crossing the road, and that would make this area more vibrant,” Buttigieg said.
“We were proud to announce a $14.6 million investment in improvements to Fourth Avenue — about $2 million of that made it through,” Buttigieg said. “Unfortunately, they have withdrawn the funding and when they’re doing that, they’re taking money away from a community that was deserving.”
City officials said Birmingham had committed a $2 million local match for the project. With the federal construction funds no longer available, that money will be redirected toward design work on a scaled-back version of the plan while the Birmingham Department of Transportation seeks new grants.
The project was one of 132 funded through the Neighborhood Access and Equity program, which targets infrastructure projects to reconnect underserved communities.
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., touted the original award as a way to restore a corridor divided by I-65.
Sewell said in a statement Friday that the withdrawal exemplifies the Trump administration’s broader campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. “This funding was about healing historic divides in Birmingham’s Black business heart, not ideology — pulling it now robs our community of vital progress at the altar of anti-DEI politics,” Sewell said.