The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a cost sharing agreement with a national rail company to install equipment to prevent motorists from trying to beat trains through intersections once gates are down.

Under the agreement, Norfolk Southern will provide half of the cost, or $97,482, for the installation of Qwick Kurb medians.

According to city officials, the intersections in the agreement are in District 7, which has a high concentration of dangerous crossings. Those intersections are 31st Street SW/Cleburne Avenue, 24th Street SW, and Pearson Avenue/Jefferson Avenue.

“I wanted to make our residents aware of the installation of these new safety measures,” Council President Pro Tem Wardine Alexander said. “We know that we have an extremely large portion of the city’s railroad crossings in our district. This is something we all have to deal with on a daily basis.

“This causes a lot of angst and people tend to make reckless decisions to skirt around the barriers to beat oncoming trains. These medians will add another layer of safety to prevent someone accidentally harming themselves or others,” she continued. “I want to thank Norfolk Southern, who has been a tremendous partner in moving this initiative forward and will be committing funds to make this possible.”

In 2023, Alabama reported 83 collisions at rail crossings, resulting in 33 injuries and nine fatalities, according to the Alabama Department of Transportation. This places Alabama eighth nationally for the number of rail crossing collisions, with many of those occurring in Birmingham.

Council President Darrell O’Quinn explained that last year, the council also approved funding for the Trainfo system, which detects trains and notifies drivers in real-time where they are in case drivers can avoid the rail crossings.

“There is a long stretch of double tracks through this area where trains are traveling at a higher rate of speed than in other parts of the city – sometimes close to 80 miles per hour,” O’Quinn said.

“These medians aren’t the only thing we’re doing to improve safety on this side of town,” Quinn continued. “Pro Tem Alexander and I are collaborating on a project that will put detection devices at these intersections and help drivers navigate around crossings. There will be signage and the detection devices will report out to commonly used navigation apps to reroute people. We’re really excited about these new measures.”

Sidewalk Film Festival

The council also Tuesday approved providing $20,000 to the Sidewalk Film Center to assist with the 27th Annual Sidewalk Film Festival.

The festival brings in more than 15,000 visitors and more than 200 visiting filmmakers to Birmingham each year. Officials expect this year’s festival to bring in roughly $1.5 million in direct spending for Birmingham businesses and hotels.

This year’s festival is Aug. 18-24 in downtown Birmingham and will include 200 films, filmmaker Q&As, panels, workshops, networking events and parties, according to the center’s website.

Note: We have a list of stories published on or after April 1 in this Google Doc.