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The city of Hoover and Shelby County are partnering with the Alabama Department of Transportation to widen Valleydale Road to five lanes between Caldwell Mill Road and Inverness Center Drive. The 3.5-mile project is just entering the utility relocation phase, and construction is not expected to start until late 2028.
The Hoover City Council on Monday night temporarily delayed approval of an amendment to a funding agreement with the state for the widening of Valleydale Road in the Inverness area.
Hoover and Shelby County are partnering with the Alabama Department of Transportation on a plan to widen 3.5 miles of Valleydale Road between Caldwell Mill Road and Inverness Center Drive. The plan is to widen that section of road to five lanes and add a sidewalk on the north side of Valleydale Road.
But it has taken 27 years to get the project scope identified, plans drawn and approved, and right of way acquired. And now the state is beginning to relocate utilities, Hoover City Engineer Chris Reeves said. Utility relocation is expected to take up to three years and cost $10 million, and Hoover’s portion of that is $2 million, Reeves said.
In order to proceed with utility relocation, the state wants Hoover to approve a funding agreement for construction as well. The amended agreement puts the revised estimate for construction at $45 million, with Hoover being responsible for $8.3 million of that, Reeves said. Shelby County in 2011 agreed to kick in $1 million toward that, and Hoover officials are in talks with Shelby County about increasing the county’s contribution as costs have escalated, he said.
Hoover’s $2 million contribution for utility relocation already has been budgeted, but the city needs to come up with another $6 million for the project, Reeves said.
Hoover Councilman Casey Middlebrooks said the Valleydale widening is a great project that everyone wants to see completed but questioned whether it was prudent to approve a funding agreement before the council identifies the source of the money.
Jennifer Cornett, Hoover’s chief financial officer, said she believes the city can use a portion of its state gasoline tax money for the Valleydale widening. The city typically gets about $4 million in state gas tax money each year, and she and Reeves are proposing to pull about $1 million of that each year for the Valleydale widening project.
It likely will be two to three years before construction can begin, so with Shelby County’s contribution, there should be enough money to cover the cost, Cornett said.
The construction project is divided into two phases. Phase one from Caldwell Mill Drive to Meadow Drive (past Veterans Park) is estimated to cost $25 million, and Hoover will need to come up with $4.3 million likely by the start of construction in late 2028, Reeves said. Phase two from Meadow Drive to Inverness Center Drive is estimated to cost $20 million, and Hoover’s portion of that is $4 million, Reeves said. That money likely won’t be needed until 2031, he said.
Middlebrooks said he still wasn’t comfortable with the details of it and asked to delay a vote on the funding amendment until the council’s next meeting on April 7, and the rest of the council agreed to postpone the vote.
In other business Monday, the City Council:
- Reallocated $483,398 of money left over from completed capital projects that came in under budget to stormwater control. Up to $200,000 will be spent on an assessment of the condition of stormwater systems in the Green Valley area, and the remaining $283,398 will go toward miscellaneous drainage projects, Reeves said.
- Rezoned a 2-acre parcel owned by Deer Valley Partners at 5245 Ross Bridge Parkway from a preferred commercial (office) district to a C-2 community business district to match the C-2 zoning for an adjacent parcel owned by the same company. The property is just south and east of property owned by Cross Creek Church.
- Agreed to spend up to $80,000 to repair a stormwater drainage pipe affecting public right of way at 2071 and 2075 Longmeadow Lane near the intersection of Interstate 459 and U.S. 31.
- Amended an agreement with the Birmingham Host Committee of the 2025 World Police and Fire Games to allow for baseball competitions to be held at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex and disc golf competitions to be held at the Inverness Nature Park. An agreement approved in February also allowed for basketball at the Finley Center, the Firefighter Challenge, police motorcycle competition and Ultimate Firefighter competitions in the parking lots of the Hoover Metropolitan Complex, tennis and soccer at the Hoover Met Complex, and cross country and the K9 biathlon at Veterans Park.
- Amended the 2025 budget to spend $290,000 in federal inmate funds to upgrade the camera system at the Hoover Jail and Hoover Public Safety Center and servers supporting the cameras and pay for training registration and travel expenses to send Police Department applicants to a police academy.
- Amended the 2025 budget to spend $8,045 in drug seizure funds for a K9 box for a Police Department Chevrolet Tahoe.
- Approved licenses to sell alcoholic beverages at the Inverness Country Club at 1 Country Club Drive and the Fuku Ramen 280 restaurant at 210 Doug Baker Blvd., Suite 100.
See the video of Monday night's Hoover City Counci meeting on the city of Hoover's YouTube page.
