TRUSSVILLE — The Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) public involvement meeting on Thursday, March 24, encouraged citizens to submit a comment form to share comments and suggestions on the project planned for I-59. The deadline to submit comment forms is April 8, 2022.
Photo courtesy of ALDOT
ALDOT explained that your comments, along with other factors such as environmental impacts, engineering aspects and cost, will be used to progress the design of this project.
The project begins at the interchange of I-59 and I-459 near Edwards Lake Road and ends north of CR-10 (Chalkville Mountain Road), a distance of approximately four miles. The existing roadway was constructed and opened to traffic in the mid-1970s. Unfortunately, the substructure condition is beyond repair and requires total reconstruction.
The existing roadway has four travel lanes, two in each direction. When construction is completed, I-59 will have three 12 foot travel lanes and two 12 foot shoulders for both northbound and southbound. The interstate will be widened within the existing State right-of-way, towards the median. Additionally, the deck of the I-59 bridges over Edwards Lake Road will be replaced.
Phase IIB (Photo courtesy of ALDOT)
DeJarvis Leonard, ALDOT Region Engineer, explained that the comments received from citizens would give ALDOT a better understanding of what to do. This project is designed to remove and replace a four-mile section of I-59 and add one travel lane in both northbound and southbound directions.
“The first phase that will be closed affecting traffic will be closing the inside lane of the southbound roadway moving all traffic to the outside lane of the southbound roadway,” Leonard said. “The reason we’re doing that is so we can build this inside lane in the median to expedite that time.”
The on-ramps at Chalkville Mountain Road and Deerfoot will be closed during that phase. Leonard said that the current plan is only to close the Argo on-ramp between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. Then, in the next phase, traffic will move to the new inside lane that ALDOT constructed in the median on the southbound roadway. ALDOT plans to complete the first two phases in six months.
Phase IIC (Photo courtesy of ALDOT)
“Then we can close all of the southbound roadways and allow the contractor to totally reconstruct the southbound lanes to get all the lanes in on the southbound roadway,” Leonard said. “Northbound roadways will not be affected on either one of those phases, these two phases should take only about six months.”
ALDOT also plans to complete the Northbound in six months.
“In the next phase, we’ll go to a contraflow scenario, that’s where we have all the traffic in both directions on the southbound roadway,” Leonard said. “So we have two lanes going North on the Southbound roadway, two lanes going South on the Southbound roadway with a median barrier in between.”
This will ALDOT the opportunity to close the Northbound roadway completely and allow the contractor to begin construction.
Phase III (Photo courtesy of ALDOT)
Mayor Buddy Choat said the project’s purpose is to replace a deteriorating roadway and provide additional capacity. Choat said that the city of Trussville has been requesting for years to have this project done on I-59.
“ALDOT has a very aggressive plan, they want to make this a 12-month project instead of a two year, they normally would take two years to do one side at a time, it’s gonna cause some inconvenience, we’re concerned about some of our public safety or police and fire extra traffic on Highway 11,” Choat said.
Choat explained that in the afternoons and in the mornings, there’s a bottleneck getting on I-59 Chalkville Mountain Road because of merging traffic.
“The real problem happens when people coming home from work come in through on I-59 and merge in from I-459, and then it literally causes people to stop on both sides,” Choat said. “We want them to do the project. I think having this meeting gives people a chance to see the project, they’re going to have the same concerns, but I also know that ALDOT will give us an opportunity to have a word in this.”
Trussville is working on alleviating the potential traffic on Highway 11 by coordinating the traffic lights.
DeJarvis Leonard listens to concerns from the public. (Photo by Hannah Curran)
ALDOT public involvement meeting encourages citizens to submit ‘comment form’ for I-59 project
By Hannah Curran, Editor
TRUSSVILLE — The Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) public involvement meeting on Thursday, March 24, encouraged citizens to submit a comment form to share comments and suggestions on the project planned for I-59. The deadline to submit comment forms is April 8, 2022.
Photo courtesy of ALDOT
ALDOT explained that your comments, along with other factors such as environmental impacts, engineering aspects and cost, will be used to progress the design of this project.
The project begins at the interchange of I-59 and I-459 near Edwards Lake Road and ends north of CR-10 (Chalkville Mountain Road), a distance of approximately four miles. The existing roadway was constructed and opened to traffic in the mid-1970s. Unfortunately, the substructure condition is beyond repair and requires total reconstruction.
The existing roadway has four travel lanes, two in each direction. When construction is completed, I-59 will have three 12 foot travel lanes and two 12 foot shoulders for both northbound and southbound. The interstate will be widened within the existing State right-of-way, towards the median. Additionally, the deck of the I-59 bridges over Edwards Lake Road will be replaced.
Phase IIB (Photo courtesy of ALDOT)
DeJarvis Leonard, ALDOT Region Engineer, explained that the comments received from citizens would give ALDOT a better understanding of what to do. This project is designed to remove and replace a four-mile section of I-59 and add one travel lane in both northbound and southbound directions.
“The first phase that will be closed affecting traffic will be closing the inside lane of the southbound roadway moving all traffic to the outside lane of the southbound roadway,” Leonard said. “The reason we’re doing that is so we can build this inside lane in the median to expedite that time.”
The on-ramps at Chalkville Mountain Road and Deerfoot will be closed during that phase. Leonard said that the current plan is only to close the Argo on-ramp between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. Then, in the next phase, traffic will move to the new inside lane that ALDOT constructed in the median on the southbound roadway. ALDOT plans to complete the first two phases in six months.
Phase IIC (Photo courtesy of ALDOT)
“Then we can close all of the southbound roadways and allow the contractor to totally reconstruct the southbound lanes to get all the lanes in on the southbound roadway,” Leonard said. “Northbound roadways will not be affected on either one of those phases, these two phases should take only about six months.”
ALDOT also plans to complete the Northbound in six months.
“In the next phase, we’ll go to a contraflow scenario, that’s where we have all the traffic in both directions on the southbound roadway,” Leonard said. “So we have two lanes going North on the Southbound roadway, two lanes going South on the Southbound roadway with a median barrier in between.”
This will ALDOT the opportunity to close the Northbound roadway completely and allow the contractor to begin construction.
Phase III (Photo courtesy of ALDOT)
Mayor Buddy Choat said the project’s purpose is to replace a deteriorating roadway and provide additional capacity. Choat said that the city of Trussville has been requesting for years to have this project done on I-59.
“ALDOT has a very aggressive plan, they want to make this a 12-month project instead of a two year, they normally would take two years to do one side at a time, it’s gonna cause some inconvenience, we’re concerned about some of our public safety or police and fire extra traffic on Highway 11,” Choat said.
Choat explained that in the afternoons and in the mornings, there’s a bottleneck getting on I-59 Chalkville Mountain Road because of merging traffic.
“The real problem happens when people coming home from work come in through on I-59 and merge in from I-459, and then it literally causes people to stop on both sides,” Choat said. “We want them to do the project. I think having this meeting gives people a chance to see the project, they’re going to have the same concerns, but I also know that ALDOT will give us an opportunity to have a word in this.”
Trussville is working on alleviating the potential traffic on Highway 11 by coordinating the traffic lights.
More information and comment forms can be found at www.ALDOTinvolved.com.