New bikes lanes coming to OMSP

Oak Mountain State Park has secured grants and ALDOT engineering contracts to repave and add six-foot bike lanes to its main roads. The lanes will run on Oak Mountain State Park Road and John Findley Drive from the main entrance near Oak Mountain Amphitheatre to the “back gate” at the Highway 119 entrance. Part of this roadway has a wide shoulder that some bikers use, while other parts have no shoulder at all. The project is currently in the design phase.

“You see most bikers still in the road because it’s really not adequate,” Shelby County Chief Development Officer Chad Scroggins said. “When you can leave Oak Mountain Amphitheatre on State Park Road and then come all the way around and ride the whole park all the way back out to 119, it would give a really nice ride for the road bikers who are already using it.”

The bike lane project is part of the $400,000 Shelby County budgeted for the park this fiscal year. That funding has also built new restrooms and a picnic pavilion at the archery range.