0813 road work
Work on U.S. 280 intersections in the Mountain Brook area is expected to wrap up Aug. 5, ALDOT officials said. Following that interim completion date, contractors have until Thanksgiving to finish the remaining intersections from The Summit to Double Oak Mountain.
Intersection work has progressed rapidly down U.S. 280, and officials expect it won’t be long before the medians from I-459 to Doug Baker Boulevard are swollen with safety vests.
For the daily driver, this means three months of dodging construction equipment likely followed by weeks of adjusting to the highway’s new identity of “right-turn only.”
Homewood, Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills are currently going through the growing pains of the Alabama Department of Transportation’s (ALDOT) Intersection Improvement Plan. Contractors Dunn Construction and APAC-MidSouth were on target to complete work on intersections from Hollywood Boulevard to Green Valley Road by the Aug. 5 interim completion date.
“Delays and traffic have not been any worse that expected,” said Craig Fleming, president of Dunn Construction. “Most work done to this point has been from Red Mountain Expressway down to Birmingham Water Works. Now, we’re working our way down to Doug Baker.”
Fleming said drivers could expect to see substantial activity in target intersections, including excavation of islands in medians, widening in intersections and new concrete being poured. He added that all work would take place at night.
(To see plans for construction at your intersection, click here to view our breakdown)
But cross I-459 heading west into Birmingham, and things should be different from here on.
“There won’t be much left to do in that area,” Fleming said. “By the time this publication comes out, we’ll pretty much have everything repaved, new curbs and concrete islands will be installed, and there will be new striping.”
ALDOT’s Intersection Improvement Plan, first revealed to the public in October 2012, is designed to increase the average speed of travel through 27 famously congested intersections. The state anticipates the work will wrap up before Thanksgiving, as does Fleming.
Once complete, the project will alter the way many drivers enter the highway, as some traffic signals will be removed and multiple intersections will no longer allow left turns onto U.S. 280 from side streets.
“I can pretty much guarantee that when it’s all said and done, it’s going to be a mess,” said Mark Meadows, owner of Chick-fil-A in Inverness. “Today, when a car comes in from Mississippi or Texas, they don’t understand how 280 works. You can imagine what it will be like in November when everybody is new to it.
“For the first few days, I can’t imagine the calls ALDOT is going to get.”
Meadows has a unique perspective on the project. His Chick-fil-A is one of the highest-volume locations, situated in the top 1 percent of the company, Meadows said. It also boasts the highest volume during breakfast service of any Chick-fil-A franchise in the nation. He could easily be considered the measuring stick for vehicle volume on the corridor, and he’s putting his faith – at least for now – in the project and the people behind it.
Meadows recently joined other business owners from the Cahaba Park Circle area for a meeting with ALDOT Director John Cooper and Darrell Skipper of Skipper Consulting. Skipper has worked on the project since its inception in 2012.
Meadows said he left the meeting feeling thankful for the time he was afforded. He added he felt though the changes might not be ideal for him and other business owners, he believed ALDOT had the people in mind.
“The bottom line is, it’s going to happen,” Meadows said. “I sell chicken. That’s what I do. These guys maneuver traffic, and my perception is that the majority of people are yelling about their difficulty in getting from point A to point B on 280.”
ALDOT Division 3 Engineer Brian Davis said drivers who use the intersections in Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills that could be finished by Aug. 5 should prepare for the changes.
“Some maneuvers will be very different on completion than the ones drivers have gotten used to making in the last seven years,” Davis said. “Drive slowly and cautiously, and make plans to ride through on the weekend to get used to the changes.”
Fleming also urged drivers to play it safe as construction continues.
“We’re concerned on a daily basis for the safety of our forces and the public,” he said. “This is a high-profile job on a heavily traveled road, and we’re working in confined areas and in medians. I encourage the public to observe construction speed zones and be aware of our people working right up next to traffic.”
Davis said ALDOT began distributing educational material and airing television commercials in July to get motorists acclimated to the changes.
