Year in Review (No. 3) U.S. Highway 278 road work creates changes — and headaches
Published 5:15 am Saturday, December 30, 2017
- An ambulance travels through a pedestrian lane at the intersection of Fourth Avenue SE and U.S. 278.
The Times is counting down to the top local story of 2017.
A summer-long paving and realignment project along the in-town length of one of Cullman’s busiest roads disoriented motorists and created parking headaches for a handful of local business owners. It also served as a big topic of conversation, both in local hangouts and online, well into the fall.
Most of the temporary chaos caused by the Alabama Department of Transportation’s (ALDOT) changes to the flow of traffic on U.S. Highway 278 has now subsided, as drivers have adjusted to fewer lanes, median barriers that prevent turns, and the removal of on-street parking on the highway’s north side.
But for a while, things were hectic. In April, ALDOT revealed the $3 million, safety-oriented project, which also included the repaving of a 5.5-mile stretch of Highway 278 from Interstate 65 to Alabama Highway 69. The project reduced sections of the four-lane highway down to two lanes, and compelled drivers — particularly on the east side of town, from St. Bernard to East Point — to forsake old habits and learn new ones.
The construction itself, done largely at night, appeared to generate fewer complaints than the permanent changes it wrought.
New, curb-height concrete barriers, which separate eastbound and westbound lanes, suddenly prevented local residents from making left turns to access neighborhoods on the city’s east side. The removal of on-street parking spaces served to widen the road itself, but left a few downtown businesses scrambling to reconfigure parking while advising unwary customers of the change.
After collaborating with city officials, ALDOT responded to complaints about the barriers by slightly modifying the ones installed at U.S. Highway 31 and Fourth Avenue, saying the tweaks would help make turns less restrictive. City leaders, after hearing from residents, had voiced their concerns about the concrete islands during a meeting with ALDOT officials in August.
Traffic count data indicates 14,000-15,000 vehicles travel the highway through the city on a daily basis, with the area between Fourth Avenue and College Hill Drive seeing traffic counts as high as 17,000 vehicles per day.
That figure makes Highway 278’s busiest stretch through Cullman also one of the highest-volume sections of two-lane roadway anywhere in Alabama.
