I'm from BHM, live there now. Learned to fly there. My house is 15 miles or less from the crash site.
When I was learning to fly in the eighties, that runway was about 5000' and bookended by large ridges. The city of Birmingham is in a long, narrow valley (it was originally called "Oxmoor Valley.")
Fifteen years ago the city's airport authority wrangled a prodigious amount of federal money and enlarged that runway. It involved moving perimeter roads, buying up houses and a Panama Canal - sized earthmoving operation.
I can't imagine enlarging that runway even more. And the real problem is the other end - the southern end. Red Mountain's there, and it ain't going no place....