Roadscapes Wednesday: Henry Road at Anniston Eastern Bypass

Nathan Young

11 years ago

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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.