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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Work on the Patton Chapel Road bridge continues as the bridge nears completion Nov. 3.
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Map courtesy of Jefferson County.
This map shows the future layout for the intersection of Patton Chapel Road, Chapel Lane, Chapel Road and Preserve Parkway. Workto realign the intersections of the roads should intensify after the completion of the replacement of the bridge over Patton Creek just to the east. The bridge had been scheduled to reopen Nov. 9, but work was still under way in mid-November. The intersection realignmentshould take an estimated two months, depending on the weather, county officials say.
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Map courtesy of Jefferson County.
This map shows the entirety of an $11 million project to widen Patton Chapel Road from Crayrich Drive to Gwin Elementary School, replace and widen the Patton Creek bridge andrealign the intersection of Patton Chapel Road, Chapel Lane, Chapel Road and Preserve Parkway.
As the replacement of the Patton Creek bridge on Patton Chapel Road comes to a close, Jefferson County officials are moving on to the realignment of a four-way intersection in front of Gwin Elementary School.
The county is combining the intersection of Patton Chapel Road and Chapel Lane and the intersection of Patton Chapel Road and Preserve Parkway into one four-way intersection.
That work, which has been planned for 20 years, should intensify with the completion of the Patton Creek bridge replacement and take another two months or so to complete, depending on the weather, Deputy Jefferson County Manager Cal Markert said.
Then, the county should take about four months to widen a section of Patton Chapel Road between Crayrich Drive and Tamassee Lane and wrap up the project with the section of road between Tamassee Lane and the Patton Creek bridge.
The county also is extending the sidewalk on Patton Chapel from Crayrich Drive all the way to the sidewalk that ends near Patton Chapel Condominiums. That will provide a continuous sidewalk along Patton Chapel all the way from U.S. 31 past Simmons Middle School to a point up Shades Mountain near Matzek Drive.
There are future plans to extend the sidewalk about a mile further, linking it to one on Park Avenue in Bluff Park.
The entire Patton Chapel Road widening and realignment project initially was projected to cost about $8 million, but it ended up costing $11 million, Markert said.
Jefferson County and Hoover are each contributing $1.25 million, and the rest is coming from the federal government.
The Alabama Department of Transportation had to approve all the plans and modifications to the plans along the way because it handles the distribution of federal money for road projects in the state.
The Patton Creek bridge was shut down for demolition and replacement on March 24. County officials originally expected the bridge would be out for three months, depending on the weather, but building the replacement bridge ended up taking more than seven months.
The delays prompted numerous people to contact city and county officials, wondering why it was taking so long. One commenter on social media joked the contractor was trying to build it faster than the Golden Gate Bridge was built, so maybe it would be done by 2023.
Markert said the biggest reason for the delay was that a Birmingham Water Works line had to be relocated.
“We couldn’t control that as much as we wanted to. That delayed us severely,” Markert said. “We had to wait till they got that out of the way to get a certain amount of the work done.”
Also, a major rain event Aug. 30 blew out footings for wing walls, and that work had to be redone, causing at least three to four more weeks of delay, he said.
The bridge runs over Patton Creek in the 1600 block of Patton Chapel Road, between Gwin Elementary School and Cornwall Road and right next to the entrance of Patton Creek Condominiums.
About 18,000 vehicles normally travel that stretch of road on the average day, but traffic was diverted during construction.
The official detour route from U.S. 31 is to go south on U.S. 31, turn right onto John Hawkins Parkway, right onto Galleria Boulevard and left onto Chapel Lane, which connects back with Patton Chapel Road at Gwin Elementary.
However, many people used neighborhood streets as a cut-through, greatly increasing traffic on roads such as Teakwood Road, Kestwick Drive, Hummingbird Lane, Deo Dara Drive and Winchester Road.
The new bridge has both a pedestrian path and a bicycle lane, Markert said. A house on Patton Chapel Road across from the Patton Creek Condominiums was torn down in March to facilitate the construction project.
