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Photo by Savannah Schmidt.
From Pump House Road, rush hour congestion can be seen lining up on either side of the U.S. 280 from Lakeshore to I-459. Developers plan to add a lane onto either side of the road and are considering expanding the bridge as well.
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Photo by Savannah Schmidt.
The entrance ramp onto U.S. 280 from Lakeshore Dr. crowds with rush hour traffic as commuters head home on Nov. 18. The construction will add a lane from Lakeshore to I-459 by the Summit.
U.S. 280 congestion may be getting a little worse in the next couple of years — and then, officials hope, a whole lot better.
The state is set to begin construction on the widening of 280 as soon as February, the Alabama Department of Transportation said. The project is expected to last two years.
The project is designed to add to the capacity for cars traveling along the western end of the highway, which runs through Homewood, Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills. According to data from ALDOT, the busiest point of 280, near Overton Road, has an average of nearly 105,000 vehicles traveling that point daily. By comparison, only the interstates are more traveled in the metro area. I-20/59 by the Tallapoosa St. exit has more than 150,000 vehicles driving on it daily.
The project will have several components to it, starting at the Rosedale Drive intersection in Homewood and ending where 280 crosses the Cahaba River:
- Resurfacing of both directions of 280 from Rosedale Drive to Lakeshore Drive.
- Widening of 280 in both directions from Lakeshore Drive to I-459.
- Resurfacing of U.S. 280 from I-459 to the Cahaba River by Grandview Medical Center.
- Replacement of the Pump House Road bridge.
Josh Phillips, a spokesman for ALDOT, said the resurfacing will maintain the road and add to its safety and the expansion was needed for the amount of traffic on 280.
“We’re trying to lower travel times for people on the roadways,” he said. “280 has grown so much that adding capacity just becomes necessary to try to keep traffic moving as much as we can through there so that people spend less time on the road and more time doing the things they want.”
The project total cost has not been released because the Department of Transportation is still taking bids, Phillips said.
Until those bids are in and have been accepted by the department, he said, there will be no decision on which part of the project will begin first because ALDOT will not know the availability of the crews.
Phillips also said the project’s start date would be dependent on the weather, since the laying of asphalt needs to have consistent warmer temperatures to be applied.
“You’re probably looking at February-ish before you see something being done out there, as far as any clearing or taking up anything,” he said. “And then March before you see asphalt.”
Due to these variables, Phillips said while the project could start in February, it could be anywhere in the window of the first quarter of 2025.
There will need to be preparation on the sides of the road for the widening portion of the work, which may involve clearing plots of land and moving dirt.
The department will work at night, Phillips said, in an attempt to mitigate traffic disruption along the corridor.
“There will be some times where we have traffic impacts — we’ll have to shift lanes over a little bit or whatever,” he said. “But that’s why a lot of the work’s being done at night, to hopefully minimize those traffic impacts.”
Phillips said the widening would take the majority of the time, and the resurfacing generally takes much less time.
The project’s start comes a year later than what was originally announced. In December 2023, the project was expected to have started in late spring 2024.
While Phillips didn’t know why the project was moved, he said road construction projects have a window in which to begin so that the temperatures reach a point where asphalt can be applied. A number of factors could have caused missing the window for the 280 expansion project, he said, including utility relocation or design changes.
“If you miss this window, it doesn’t just bump it two months, three months,” he said. “It ends up bumping it an entire year.”
For the municipalities closest to the project, there is hope the project will not only create better traffic flow on 280, but also alleviate some of the cut-through traffic that people use to avoid 280.
“Hopefully, some of that will help divert more traffic down 459 and 280 as opposed to cutting through the center of Mountain Brook,” said Sam Gaston, the city manager of Mountain Brook.
The city currently has cut-through traffic around Overton Road and Cherokee Road. The on-ramps for both locations will now be incorporated into the new lanes. Residents had been concerned that the new design would create more back-ups at the intersection, which is controlled by traffic lights. Gaston said he was told the timing at those lights would be changed to accommodate any traffic backup on Overton Road.
Mountain Brook City Councilwoman Graham Smith said as other areas have grown, the new residents have used Mountain Brook as a shortcut.
“Liberty Park has blown up,” Smith said. “And we’re thrilled for our neighbors. We’re happy for Vestavia, but we need some traffic planning that would potentially remediate and take some volume off of our roads, our local roads.”
Another point of contention during the planning was the expansion of the Pump House Road bridge, which runs over 280. Pump House Road is another road that drivers use to cut across Mountain Brook to get access to 280.
“I understand when you’re trying to build a large project that there’s going to be pressure points in those areas,” Smith said. “However, we’re not looking to have the bridge expanded to bring more traffic to those local back roads. I would consider that a local back road versus an artery to drive traffic to Liberty Park. We’re hoping that they will utilize 280 and take 459 and see that as the best option.”
The City of Vestavia Hills says it also hopes the expansion will ease the number of cars cutting through residential neighborhoods and incentivize drivers to use the main thoroughfares.
“The traffic volumes on the U.S. [280] highway corridor have surpassed the original projections for the roadway for quite some time,” said Cinnamon McCulley, assistant city manager of Vestavia Hills. “We are hopeful that the additional lanes will help ease congestion, increase efficiency and allow drivers to utilize Highway 280 as opposed to cut-through routes through surrounding communities.”
However, in the short term, McCulley said she expects more traffic in those residential areas while construction is underway.
“I suspect cut-through traffic will temporarily increase in the Mountain Brook and Cahaba Heights areas as drivers attempt to avoid delays that generally occur with road projects,” she said.
But both Gaston and McCulley said changing those traffic patterns wouldn’t be such an easy thing given the psychology of the drivers who believe cutting through residential neighborhoods is quicker than traveling 280 and I-459.
“We understand it may take some time for drivers to adjust their commuting routes,” McCulley said, “but feel sure drivers will utilize Highway 280 if it proves to be as efficient as anticipated.”
