World Trade City beam now in front of Municipal Complex, other city updates

A beam from the World Trade Center has been placed in front of the new Municipal Complex on Hoyt Road.

Fire Chief Robert Ezekiel had secured the H-beam several years ago, and it has been waiting in storage for the complex to be complete. Its bronze base, designed by metalworker and artist Shea Scully, mimics the structure of the beam and holds it in a vertical position to honor the tower from which it originated.

Landscaping and other final construction details for the building will continue through the end of May, but all the offices in the new municipal complex in Crestline Village are now open for business.

“It’s great to be back in Crestline Village,” City Manager Sam Gaston said. “We have even had people send flower arrangement and a cake to welcome us back. It’s been a pretty smooth transition. We still have several things on our punch list, but we working them out.”

The city will set a date for the building’s open house at a later time.

With the Municipal Complex project wrapping up and Crestline Village paving completed this week, the City is looking toward new projects.

Gaston anticipates that the first phase of the Cahaba River Park and the Safe Routes to Schools sidewalks project will be bid out in the next month or two. The Phase 6 sidewalk project should be completed by mid-summer, and more of Euclid Avenue will be paved later in the summer, according to Gaston.