World Games closes streets in Birmingham

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Birmingham hosts the World Games, July 7-17, and city crews began setting up barricades and blocking off streets adjacent to venues on Saturday.

“We’re going to start shutting everything down,” said Kelvin Blevins, deputy director of the city’s Department of Transportation, last week.

Crews for the Transportation Department and the Public Works Department were setting up the barriers, he said.

“Nearly all sections will be set up that day,” said the city’s director of communications, Rick Journey.

So the streets that will be blocked off have been blocked off.

The street closures most heavily affect the downtown and Uptown areas, with a security perimeter set up around the World Games Plaza that will include Protective Stadium, the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, Boutwell Auditorium and the new City Walk under the Interstate 20/59 overpass bridge through downtown.

The perimeter will block non-official vehicular traffic, but pedestrians will be free to walk in the zone, Journey said. “People will be able to move freely,” he said.

Next will see the arrival of police officers from 15 different local law enforcement agencies to assist Birmingham. That will include 91 state troopers.

“There will be a heighted police presence,” said Birmingham Police Lt. Field Morton.

The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Secret Service will have federal law enforcement agents involved as part of the unified command. “There’s been extensive work done for these games,” said Randolph “Tex” Alles, deputy undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “You have an array of experts … from explosives to investigations to intelligence.”

The World Games, an Olympic-style athletic competition that includes many sports not in the Summer Olympics, will feature 3,600 athletes taking part in events at 24 venues in the metro area.

That includes water sports at Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, women’s softball at the Hoover Met, lacrosse at UAB’s PNC Field, karate at Birmingham-Southern College’s Battle Coliseum, flag football at Legion Field and gymnastics at BJCC Arena. Boutwell Auditorium will host kickboxing and Sumo wrestling, which is already sold out. Sloss Furnace will feature sport climbing, Parkour and beach handball. Avondale Park will host archery. The CrossPlex will host canoe polo and inline hockey. Barber Motorsports Park will host canopy piloting.

The opening ceremony on July 7 and closing ceremony on July 17 will be at Protective Stadium.

See more World Games coverage here.

Maps of street closures are on the city’s web site: https://www.birminghamal.gov/bhamready

The Waze App will let you access street closing maps.

Information on the free public transportation including shuttles can be found at the World Games web site: https://twg2022.com/ride/

Typical admission to a single event varies on average from $24.75 to $34.75. A list of sports, competition times and tickets are available through Ticketmaster here: https://am.ticketmaster.com/twg2022/

Numerous streets will be blocked to commercial traffic during the World Games, July 7-17, 2022.

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