U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is heading to Birmingham on Wednesday to celebrate the $14.5 million federal grant to to turn 4th Avenue West in the city’s Black Business District into a two-way street.

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, who said the funding “will help reconnect our communities and pave the way for strong and equitable growth,” will join Mayor Randall Woodfin and community leaders in welcoming Buttigieg to Birmingham.

Further details on Wednesday’s event were to come later.

Buttigieg, who last visited Birmingham as transportation secretary in July 2022 to tout how the bipartisan infrastructure law benefits the city, will detail “how this project will help better connect the city and create new opportunities for growth throughout Birmingham,” according to a statement from his office.

The award helps “reconnect parts of the community that were divided by transportation decisions of the past,” the statement went on to say.

The grant of $14,556,040 will come from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Neighborhood Access and Equity grant program to re-connect the historic Fourth Avenue Black Business District.

Birmingham last year announced it had applied for federal funding to help turn the major one-way street downtown into a two-way street, which officials say will promote economic development and improve safety.

The Birmingham City Council in August approved a grant application seeking funding from the Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Program.

The money will be used to convert Fourth Avenue North from a one-way street to a two-way street from 24th Street North to 9th Street North.

Fourth Avenue North moves traffic west on a one-way street starting from the U.S. Post Office at 24th Street through downtown, past the Harbert Center at 2019 Fourth Ave. North, through the historic Black business district that includes the Carver Theatre at 1631 Fourth Ave. North, on to the west side of Interstate 65.

The City of Birmingham is providing $2 million in funding for the project.