Well, well, ALDOT has finally finished the Interstate 59 construction in Etowah County. It took them two years, yes two years to reconstruct 10 miles of Interstate. Before the construction began, I-59 was in very poor shape. Just take a look at these photos.
Now, brand new concrete is in place and the drive is much smoother. I am just glad this Interstate is in better shape. It just should not have taken two years for the work to be done. Here are some pictures of the new roadway.
On Saturday I experienced some traffic trouble on Interstate 20 around the Brompton exit. While going to Birmingham on Saturday, before reaching the Brompton exit or Exit 147 on I-20, I got into the left lane and yes, a car had spinned out and hit the barrier wall. The driver of the wrecked car was smart to get out of the way and pull onto the right shoulder before another driver hit him. It was raining hard and the visibility was very poor. After doing the activities in the Birmingham Metro, I was driving back on I-20 and when I hit the Brompton exit, traffic came to a dead stop! I decided to ride on the right shoulder to exit and pulled over to get out of the car and take some pictures!
While I was on the Kelly Creek Road bridge taking some pictures. A police officer from one of the local cities, I forget which one, threatened to throw me in jail because I was roadgeeking. The last time I checked, walking along a public roadway is allowed and taking pictures of roads is not against the law. If there was not traffic backup because of yet another wreck at this stretch of I-20, I would not be there taking pictures. I don’t have a bad relationship with most police officers. The Alabama State Troopers and the county sheriff’s knows what me and other people do and roadgeeking is something they don’t have a problem with as long as we are not putting ourselves or other drivers in danger.
But I always have trouble with city police officers. I have already encountered some city police officers in a very bad way. One police officer from the city of Oxford threatened me about a year ago because I taking road pictures from my car and I was pulled over on the right shoulder. A police officer from the city of Anniston threatened me over a year ago because I was taking road pictures while standing on the side of the road. The last time I checked, I thought a road was public right-of-way?
It seems like I always have trouble with city police officers. And this officer from either Leeds or Moody threatened me with jail. You know something, if ALDOT would not have really bad standards about their highways, I would not be around taking pictures and talking about it! Speaking of ALDOT, why in the world would they shut down a critical detour route along U.S. 78 while construction is still going on along Interstate 20?
Interstate 20 from exit 147 to exit 156 in St. Clair County has been under construction for the last 10 years! And this stretch is prone to wrecks that blocks the interstate for hours at a time. U.S. 78 is closed from Cook Springs Road to the Chula Vista exit for a bridge replacement. Unless the bridge was about to collapse, this should have waited until the I-20 construction was finished!
I was at the bridge closure and caught this double tractor-trailer truck at the bridge closure. The driver took U.S. 78 to get around the blocked interstate and got stuck. Many car drivers also had to turn around at the bridge closure because they were trying to get around the blocked interstate. The truck driver had to take apart his double tractor-trailer truck and turn around! This is dangerous!
I guess ALDOT is wanting to anger the drivers even more to close down the detour route for when I-20 is blocked. There is hardly any signage for the closure, there are only two barricades saying road closed to thru traffic and some detour U.S. 78 signs. There needs to be better signage along I-20 to tell drivers that U.S. 78 is closed.
Most of the three-lane project along the eastbound lanes of I-20 are now complete. Here are some pictures. Yes, the road lines needs to be repainted!
The Alabama Department of Transportation always comes up with some wacky ideas for the roads in Alabama. A few weeks ago, I talked about the major traffic problems occurring due to the detoured Interstate 20 traffic merging into one lane at the I-459 interchange. I suggested they two-lane the ramp. And after major traffic problems, two weeks later ALDOT finally 2-laned the ramp. If ALDOT listened to the public and the Geek Alabama blog, they would have 2-laned the ramp before I-20 was closed. Here’s a post talking about it. http://geekalabama.com/2013/03/14/the-upcoming-interstate-20-repaving-project/
ALDOT now has plans to redo the Interstate 20 / Interstate 59 bridge through downtown Birmingham. The plans are to tear down the existing structure and replace it with a taller and wider bridge. The new bridge would eliminate the exit ramps into downtown Birmingham and new ramps would be constructed to connect all downtown traffic to 11th Avenue North. While the bridge is being torn down and re-built. The interstate would be closed down with all through traffic having to take I-459 or taking downtown city streets. Before the bridges are replaced, 11th Avenue North would be re-constructed into a 5-lane road for Interstate traffic to reach downtown. Here is the project plan.
Here is the project description from ALDOT:
“The project as proposed will be constructed in two phases. The first phase will construct the 11th Avenue North corridor improvements and ramp connections to I-59/20 and to I-65. The 11th Avenue North corridor will be used by local traffic accessing the CBD [Central Business District] during the second construction phase and on into the future.
“The second phase will be to replace the bridges on I-59/20 through the CBD. The bridge decks will be modified to incorporate auxiliary lanes and the existing steel girders that will be replaced with segmental concrete construction. This work will also include replacing the existing signing, Intelligent Transportation System and lighting elements along I-59/20. Vehicles traveling through Birmingham along I-59/20 will be detoured on I-459 during construction. Local traffic will be able to use the improved 11th Avenue North corridor to access the CBD.”
The current plan would cut-off more access to Birmingham neighborhoods like Norwood, Druid Hills, Fountain Heights, and Smithfield. These residents would have to take streets that will be filled with a lot of traffic to reach downtown. These residents would be divided by an even bigger freeway. I am going out to say this, I am NOT in support of the current plans supported by ALDOT. This plan would divide downtown Birmingham from the BJCC and the new entertainment district. Seriously, who would like to walk under a massive bridge to reach the convention complex?
Residents living in North Birmingham would have to get on busy streets to reach downtown which could impact their safety. And making 11th Avenue North a 5-lane highway right next to the BJCC will not be safe for pedestrians. What if ALDOT considered doing another plan? A plan to tear down the I-20/I-59 bridge through downtown and instead replace it with a park?
Or I-20/I-59 could be buried through downtown.
Several people in Birmingham wants ALDOT to permanently tear down the bridge to connect downtown Birmingham to the BJCC. This is an idea that has already been done in other cities in America. The group Congress for the New Urbanism has a page set up where they encourage cities to tear down old highways to re-develop cities. View it at: http://www.cnu.org/highways
And in New Orleans, residents are wanting a portion of I-10 along Claiborne Avenue torn down.
Residents are wanting ALDOT to re-route I-20/I-59 though the industrial areas in North Birmingham along Finley Ave. This plan would result in downtown being brought back together and it would get rid of the dangerous “Malfunction Junction” which many road geeks hate seeing! Here’s a map of the proposed relocated I-20/I-59.
I think ALDOT can do a better job with the current plan at hand. If ALDOT can not move I-20/I-59 to the north, why not bury the highway? No one visiting Birmingham and the BJCC would like to see a massive highway bridge right in front of them. Birmingham has developed a comprehensive plan for the city. You can view it at: http://www.birminghamcomprehensiveplan.com/
As of now, ALDOT seems to be interested in creating work for the road/bridge lobby rather than truly doing urban design. If ALDOT truly cared about this project, they would hide the highway so downtown can look better! They would also invest in mass transit so people would not have to drive cars. People need to realize that there is more you can do when you are not in a car! It will not kill you to walk a little bit to get to where you want to go. Downtown Birmingham is not dangerous! You just need to get out and explore!
This week I wanted to talk about some traffic lights along Quintard Ave. that are still malfunctioning! The lights along Quintard at 10th St., 8th St. (AL-202), and Greenbrier Dear Rd. are still going through light cycles when no one is there to trigger the lights. The 10th St. and 8th St. lights are malfunctioning because ped signals to cross Quintard Ave. are still malfunctioning. The ped signal buttons are broken and that causes the ped signals to go to walk on each cycle when they are not supposed too. I have talked about these lights being broken since Summer 2012!
When these lights are malfunctioning, it causes short green light times on Quintard Ave. During the day time, this causes major traffic backups. If no one is paying attention, this causes accidents.
During the last week, I went out to Interstate 20 and took some picture updates. The contraflow has now shifted onto the westbound lanes and the bridges on the westbound lanes are being rebuilt. On the eastbound lanes, a much longer acceleration lane for traffic merging on from exit 185 has been built. This is a huge improvement from the way the lanes were designed. The entire project to widen I-20 to six lanes all the way to exit 188 is still ongoing and will be complete soon. Enjoy the pictures!
NOTE: This post is being sent to all four TV stations in Birmingham. This post is also being sent to The Anniston Star as well! Enjoy video footage of the problems!
Last Saturday I experienced the worst traffic backup ever seen in Oxford! Leon Smith Parkway at the new Publix and Oxford Exchange was filled with traffic jams. It was so bad, traffic was backing up and blocking intersections! I have talked about these traffic problems for a year now. You think these traffic light problems are bad now, just wait until the Eastern Bypass opens! Here’s a post talking about these issues from last December.
I will begin with some pictures of the massive traffic backup. Just take a look!
I have contacted The City of Oxford and ALDOT about these malfunctioning traffic lights for close to a year now. But nothing has been done! The new traffic light at the Oxford Exchange / Publix is on a timer. There are sensors installed in the pavement but they are not working. The eastbound I-20 light is a big problem. It only has 20 seconds of green light time for traffic heading north into Anniston. That is a big reason all of this traffic backup occurred.
As you can see in this picture, the traffic backup in the exchange went back a long distance!
The big reason for all of this traffic is the eastbound I-20 traffic light. The short green light time and broken sensors is causing a big problem!
With the light malfunctioning at the Oxford Exchange intersection. This is causing the intersection to be blocked and this almost causes accidents. So dangerous!
These traffic backups are causing problems at the next intersection down. When traffic backs up, people will run the stop sign to get out!
The sad thing is the other side of the interstate also has problems! The traffic lights at the Jimmy Hinton Dr. and I-20 westbound intersections are also not timed properly. Turning right onto Leon Smith Parkway from the I-20 westbound ramp is very dangerous.
Also, The other problem is with Jimmy Hinton Dr. When only one car wants to go straight and the others wants to go right. It backs up so much traffic that it blocks access to other businesses.
This has been an ongoing issue with traffic light and road problems in the Anniston / Oxford area. Many traffic lights in Anniston and Oxford have broken sensors and malfunctioning ped signals. Also, Anniston decided to drop the speed limit to 35 along Greenbrier Dear Rd. No one is going to follow this!
I have been shocked that neither the cities or ALDOT have fixed these problems! I guess getting the TV media involved will be the only way to fix this! Here are some videos showing some of the malfunctioning traffic lights in Anniston and Oxford. I guess it’s going to take someone getting killed before something is done!
This is something that has needed to be done for a long time now! The only problem is it’s going to effect around 30,000-35,000 vehicles a day. The eastbound lanes of Interstate 20 between the I-59 interchange and the I-459 interchange will close on Monday April 8th. All through traffic will take I-459 around Birmingham. Local traffic will continue on I-59 north and then take I-459 south to connect to I-20. The closure is part of the Alabama Department of Transportation‘s $38.5 million I-20 refurbishing project. Once the east bound lanes are done, the westbound lanes will close. The work is expected to take three months on each side to complete. Here is a detour map from ALDOT.
So what do I think about this? Well I do think this is badly needed! The road is very bumpy, and you can barely see the road paint lines during the night. I hope ALDOT has plans to fix all the Interstate lights. Seriously, seeing rows of dark lights is an embarrassment.
This is not the only project going on. Interstate 459 between U.S. 280 and Grants Mill Roadwill be resurfaced and re-striped in Birmingham and Mountain Brook for $8.6 million. Work will begin this Spring and end around Labor Day Weekend. Also the granddaddy of them all; ALDOT has plans to replace the Interstate 20/59 bridges through downtown Birmingham. One whole side will be shut down to replace the bridges. This will create traffic chaos!
I have one BIG concern about the upcoming I-20 repaving project. When you exit I-459 to merge onto I-20 East. You have to merge into one lane to get on the highway. When you have around 30,000 cars trying to merge into one lane, this is going to cause a problem! ALDOT needs to create TWO lanes to merge onto I-20 eastbound. To be honest, this needed to be done a long time ago. I can just imagine the traffic crash reports on TV and Twitter because ALDOT was not smart enough to add another lane. Another lane needs to be added!
While this stretch is closed, maybe ALDOT will take a look at the interstate lights and this sign at the I-459 interchange. There are not two lanes exclusively exiting the highway.
So if you live in the Birmingham Metro, you know traffic can get pretty bad. Do I even have to tell you about U.S. 280! Since many people are active on social media and have smartphones, I thought I would use this post to highlight the people on Twitter you need to follow for traffic updates. Since ALDOT does not use social media for highway updates, (I wonder why?) The media in the Birmingham Metro has to keep the travelers up to date with traffic information. Here are four Twitter accounts you need to follow!
Mike Smith from AL.com is the newest Twitter traffic follower in the Birmingham Metro. He continues the traffic and road reporting replacing Driving Ms. Crazy. Not only you should follow him on Twitter for traffic updates. You can also follow his articles on AL.com talking about the roads in the Birmingham Metro. Click on the link to read them: http://connect.al.com/user/MikeDSmith/posts.html
FOX 6 has had great traffic and road coverage on their newscasts. Derek Scudder and Britton Lynn provides traffic updates through Twitter and during the Good Day Alabama broadcast. If you watch Good Day Alabama, you see numerous traffic updates and they even will broadcast images sent in from Twitter!
Why would I mention a weather related Twitter account? Because James Spann will often re-tweet traffic information from others on Twitter. Along with the traffic information, you will get weather information, awesome weather photos, breaking news information, and other interesting stuff! If you live in Alabama, you need to be following James Spann!
Want a Twitter account that is nothing but traffic updates. Then you need to follow Total Traffic Birmingham. This account will provide numerous traffic updates on the Birmingham area roads and nothing else!
One intersection in Anniston has already been the talk of the area. When a portion of the Anniston Eastern Bypass opened; Henry Road was moved to connect to the new roadway. Sadly; it has not taken very long for accidents to occur at this intersection. Several people are calling for a traffic light to be installed at this intersection. The biggest problem is traffic is traveling south down the mountain at high speeds. This causes a problem because much traffic has to turn left onto Henry Road. Many close calls have been encountered including this one.
ALDOT has installed caution lights before you reach the intersection. But this does little to slow down traffic. Could ALDOT also install caution lights over the intersection?
Here is investigation lines from a past accident. It did not take for an accident to occur after the road opened.
The left turn lane for traffic to turn left onto Henry Road is not long enough! At times, cars back up onto the left lane. Traffic often pulls out in front of speeding traffic going downhill to turn left. As you see below, there is ample room to extend the left turn lane and even add a second left turn lane. When you turn onto Henry Road, traffic going north has 2 lanes.
The right turn lane southbound to turn onto Henry Road is much longer!
Traffic turning left onto Henry Road, not only has to manage fast-moving traffic coming down the mountain. They also have some sight distance problems with all of those signs blocking the traffic’s view.
And let’s talk about traffic turning onto the bypass. Many drivers will turn right to head south. This traffic has to yield but I witnessed several drivers not even turning their necks to see if traffic was coming. They were relying on their driver side mirrors while not slowing down. There are plans to add an acceleration lane but I would like to see stop signs replace the yield signs.
Good luck if you are wanting to turn left onto the bypass from Henry Road. Once the bypass fully opens, this intersection is going to become much more dangerous!
ALDOT recently installed signs pointing drivers to historic downtown Anniston.
And I am still pointing this out! When the old Henry Road was taken out, they forgot the school zone signs. Why has the city not moved this yet?
In my opinion, this intersection is already dangerous. If you think it’s dangerous now, just wait until the bypass fully opens and U.S. 431 traffic is coming down that mountain. I believe ALDOT will have no choice but to install a traffic light at this intersection. It’s going to be the only way to slow down traffic coming down the mountain. Caution lights don’t work as well to slow down traffic. Before this post ends, here are pictures of the Anniston Eastern Bypass or Veterans Memorial Parkway that is currently open.
This has been on social media today during the severe weather outbreak. Sadly, someone at ALDOT can not spell! All across the Birmingham Metro, this was shown on the overhead message signs. The signs read “Tornadow Watch for Jefferson County.”
Could someone at ALDOT proofread the signs before they are sent out to the general public? What is a Tornadow Watch anyway? This was a great impression to the out-of-state visitors. Hey, we can’t even spell!
