BJCC Dome Stadium Model

A 2008 model shows a proposed domed stadium at the BJCC. ALDOT plans for an expanded traffic artery would cut the footprint of the facility in half. The BJCC has already acquired some of the property and has plans to buy more.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- An Alabama Department of Transportation plan to reconfigure Interstate 20/59 and adjacent roads in downtown Birmingham could make a domed stadium or new multipurpose facility at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex infeasible, if not impossible.

ALDOT wants to begin the $300 million project to replace and modify the downtown viaduct next year, but residents and business leaders in the affected neighborhoods have said that the changes could be ruinous.

Now the BJCC is joining that chorus.

"This potential project has probably the most immediate impact as to our functioning and our long-range plans of any single project to come before this body in many, many years," BJCC board member Clyde Echols said in a meeting Wednesday.

The board voted unanimously to hire a traffic engineering consultant to advise the BJCC and act as a liaison with ALDOT. First, the BJCC will solicit proposals for the consulting work, not to exceed $25,000.

The viaduct, east of malfunction junction, is at the end of its lifespan, and ALDOT must replace it soon. But a plan to turn 11th Avenue North into a major traffic artery would cut the footprint of the BJCC's proposed expansion in half.

The BJCC has already acquired some of the property along that road and has plans to buy more.

During the board meeting on Wednesday, the board went into executive session to discuss the impact the ALDOT proposal would have on its real estate.

"If 11th Avenue is built up and used in the manner that is described to us, it would make it very difficult to expand on the property the authority has acquired for the expansion," BJCC Chairman Dennis Lathem said.

The ALDOT proposal could also remove parking beneath the interstate and remove 9th Avenue North, which the BJCC uses to access loading docks at its arena and exhibit halls.

"It will make it more difficult," Lathem said. "Again, I don't know what the alternatives are until we have someone who can help us understand that."