1 of 3
Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Motorists travel east and west on U.S. 280 between Perimeter Park and The Summit. The portion of U.S. 280 from Lakeshore Parkway in Homewood to Perimeter Park is slated for expansion to four through lanes in each direction.
2 of 3
Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Motorists travel east and west on U.S. 280 between Perimeter Park and The Summit. The portion of U.S. 280 from Lakeshore Parkway in Homewood to Perimeter Park is slated for expansion to four through lanes in each direction.
3 of 3
Running 392 miles, U.S. 280 goes from downtown Birmingham to Blichton, Georgia (near Savannah), but traffic congestion sometimes makes it feel like you’ve been on the road long enough to travel 392 miles between Birmingham and Chelsea.
The Alabama Department of Transportation hopes to ease the congestion by widening a 4½-mile stretch that takes travelers through Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills and Birmingham.
The state in 2024 plans to begin adding an extra lane on each side of U.S. 280 between Lakeshore Drive and Perimeter Park, just east of Interstate 459. That would make four dedicated through lanes on each side of the highway along that stretch of road.
To make that happen, the state will have to replace the Pump House Road bridge over U.S. 280 in Mountain Brook because there is not enough room for additional lanes with the current bridge structure.
Dejarvis Leonard
The state also plans to add a third left-turn lane from westbound U.S. 280 onto I-459 and make repairs to the I-459 bridge deck, said DeJarvis Leonard, the lead engineer for ALDOT’s East Central Region.
Additionally, the project includes repairs on the existing U.S. 280 roadbed between Lakeshore Drive and Rosedale Drive in Homewood and repaving of the stretch between Perimeter Park and the Cahaba River, Leonard said. That makes the total project cover about 5.8 miles.
It’s clear the project is needed, Leonard said. Currently, there are an estimated nearly 100,000 vehicles per day traveling U.S. 280 at I-459, he said. The stretch of road in question is operating at a D or F level of service during peak traffic times (roughly 7:30-8:30 a.m. and 4:30-6 p.m.), he said.
In traffic design lingo, a D level of service equates to “approaching unstable flow,” and an F level of service means “forced or breakdown flow,” in which travel time cannot be predicted and generally there is more demand than capacity.
“We’re pretty much at full congestion,” Leonard said.
Adding an extra through lane on each side of the highway should improve the level of service to a B or a C, Leonard said. A B level of service means “reasonably free flow,” and a C level of service means “stable flow, at or near free flow.”
The planned road changes should take five to 10 minutes off the travel time between I-459 and the Red Mountain Expressway, Leonard said.
“We’re excited about the project and think it should be a win-win for everyone,” he said.
Cost and timeline
The expected cost is $25 million to $30 million, but the project is still in the final design stage, and construction bids probably won’t be taken until March, Leonard said. Construction should start in early May and take 18 to 24 months to complete, he said.
The bulk of the work will be scheduled at night and on weekends so as to minimize disruptions to weekday traffic, Leonard said. There will be some traffic interruptions, especially during bridge construction, but the public will be notified in advance about major traffic flow alterations, he said.
This project has been in the planning stages for three to four years, Leonard said.
Originally, it was a smaller project that involved new lanes being added only between Lakeshore Drive and Pump House Road — a stretch of about 2.1 miles, Leonard said. However, it was such a small job that it didn’t attract the attention of a lot of contractors, and the bids received were high, he said.
ALDOT decided to broaden the scope of the job and believes that will attract more bidders and help bring the cost per mile down, he said.
The project already has been approved by the Birmingham Metropolitan Planning Organization and added to the state’s transportation improvement plan, Leonard said. It will be funded by the state, including state and federal tax dollars, he said.
The city of Birmingham is making adjustments to improve the entrance to The Summit shopping center from U.S. 280 in conjunction with the ALDOT project, Leonard said.
State and Birmingham area officials have looked at numerous ways to improve traffic flow on U.S. 280 over recent decades, including an option to build an elevated roadway in parts of the corridor. However, there was enough opposition from cities and communities in the corridor to eliminate that idea from consideration. Among the concerns, residents said they feared an elevated roadway would be unsightly and add noise and light pollution, hurting their property values.
Community response
Ashley Curry
Regarding the new plan to add lanes to U.S. 280, Mountain Brook Mayor Stewart Welch said he believes it will help move traffic through the area faster between downtown Birmingham and I-459.
Some Mountain Brook residents two years ago expressed concerns during a public meeting that the elimination of an acceleration lane from Overton Road onto U.S. 280 will make traffic back up too long on Overton, causing a logjam there.
Leonard said ALDOT needs to turn that acceleration lane into a through lane because there is not enough room for both to exist due to the terrain. He understands that would make it more difficult for traffic from Overton Road to merge onto U.S. 280, but in response to resident concerns, ALDOT plans to alter the traffic light timing to give dedicated time for right turns from Overton onto U.S. 280, he said.
Welch said that should help compensate some for the removal of the acceleration lane.
“I know they’re going to try to address the problem as best they can with the timing of the lights, and hopefully it won’t get too bad,” he said.
People would be surprised how much traffic can flow through an intersection in 20 seconds, he said.
“I think ALDOT’s doing the best they can to solve a problem that’s a pretty tough problem,” Welch said.
Vestavia Hills Mayor Ashley Curry said he definitely views the additional lanes on U.S. 280 as a positive. The traffic volumes on U.S. 280 have far surpassed the original projections for the roadway, he said.
The additional lanes on the highway will help more traffic more efficiently, he said.
“I don’t think there’s any way it would do anything but help us,” he said. “It’ll be safer. It’ll be quicker.”
While that stretch of U.S. 280 isn’t in the Hoover city limits, it will affect many Hoover residents as well, especially those who live in the Greystone or Inverness areas.
Frank Brocato
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said he knows that U.S. 280 is a difficult problem to solve and that ALDOT has studied the situation.
“I’m grateful they’re actually putting new lanes on 280 to help the problem,” Brocato said. “I think that eventually that will be the solution as it moves out through Chelsea as well.”
About 10 years ago, ALDOT implemented a change in traffic patterns at the intersection of U.S. 280 and Valleydale Road, for drivers on westbound U.S. 280 who want to turn left onto Valleydale and drivers on eastbound U.S. 280 who want to turn left onto Cahaba Beach Road.
Those drivers now must go through the traffic light at Valleydale Road and make a U-turn and then a right turn instead. That took some adjustment by drivers, but the changes did help move traffic quicker, Brocato said.
The U.S. 280 corridor is vital to a number of cities, including Hoover, Brocato said.
“We certainly want to support anything ALDOT does to help move traffic through there safely and efficiently and at the same time gives our communities the opportunity to continue shopping on 280,” he said.
