Bulldozers this past week have been clearing 105 acres south of the Tallapoosa Street exit, moving dirt and knocking down trees on a highly visible site east of W.C. Patton Park along Interstate 20/59.

Travelers headed east out of downtown Birmingham can’t miss all the activity.

What’s going on?

That land is owned by Coca Cola Bottling Co. United-Central LLC in Birmingham, which currently operates from a distribution center at 4600 East Lake Boulevard overlooking the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Airport.

The property between 40th and 42nd St. North at 4000 Richard Arrington Boulevard (formerly 10th Ave. North) was from 1914-1997 the campus of Stockham Valves and Fittings, a company founded in Birmingham in 1903 that became one of the nation’s largest producers of valves and pipe fittings for heavy industry.

“We’ve had that property for 10 years,” said Linda Sewell, spokesperson for Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United-Central LLC. “We’ve been hoping, and our vision has always been, to build a new facility there. At the current time, everything is not finalized.”

The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday voted to vacate the right of ways on the property so Coca Cola Bottling could consolidate its property.

Coca Cola Bottling is not yet announcing details of what may be built there on the property.

“Since the site is ours, we are readying the site so that if and when that time comes, we can continue to move and stay on track with our plans,” Sewell said. “There is activity starting on the site. We’re preparing it to move forward, if and when agreements are finalized.”

The City of Birmingham’s relinquishing of right of ways was one necessary step. Other steps remain.

“I don’t want to go into details of the plans,” Sewell said. “We don’t have agreements finalized. We haven’t announced any plans. Until everything is finalized with the local governments, and all of the governments, we’re not ready to move ahead.”

Coca Cola Bottling United has continued to upgrade its facilities on East Lake Boulevard but has run out of room there.

“Over the past several years we’ve made investments on our current site because of the growth of our business,” Sewell said. “We’ve done everything we can to enhance our current location, but we’re landlocked.”

Business continues to expand, she said.

“Fortunately, we’ve been experiencing great growth,” Sewell said. “You combine those two things. We have a need for more (space). That’s what our hope and dream has been for the past decade.”

In an interview after this morning’s meeting, City Council President Darrell O’Quinn said expanded facilities for the Coca Cola Bottling plant would be a massive investment for the city.

“It’s an exciting opportunity,” O’Quinn said.

“I don’t know a lot of details,” O’Quinn said. “For the folks who live in Kingston, it’s a massive deal. Stockham Pipe has been an abandoned site for decades. This project would bring revitalization to that community.”

O’Quinn said the Alabama Department of Transportation will have to be involved in improving the Tallapoosa Street exit, which is currently oriented to traffic going north exiting the interstate, and would need to be re-worked for southbound traffic.

“Reworking the exit ramp there at Tallapoosa is a critical piece of that infrastructure,” O’Quinn said.