Public gets view of West Alabama Corridor maps

By Jeff Byrd

Editor

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The public got to see first hand the first proposed route the new West Alabama Corridor will take from Thomasville to Moundville.

The estimated $760 million highway project had its ground breaking on Nov. 12 in Linden with Alabama Governor Kay Ivey.

Monday, officials from the Alabama Department of Transportation and Volkert, were on hand to show off the proposed route. Volkert is the digital design firm that produced the maps that ALDOT used. Eager home and property owners along the route came to Coastal Alabama Community College’s Thomasville campus to see if the highway will impact their property.

ALDOT’s Southwest Regional Engineer Matt Ericksen said the public meeting was a useful tool for the agency to gather input.

“This event will help the public give us their concerns and feedback from preliminary road maps we have displayed here today,” Ericksen said. “This is the first public meeting we have had on the West Alabama Corridor which bring a four-lane highway from Thomasville to Moundville. We have the entire route displayed here. And people can see where their properties aling according to the maps.”

The blue lines that appear on the maps are to be the new highway which will start at the intersection of Highways 5 and 43 in Thomasville. The highway will proceed along the Highway 43 route to Linden where a bypass will be built. The Linden bypass has already gone under contract and work on it should commence by April, ALDOT officials said.

Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day and City Councilmen Reid Smith and Roy Madison attended the public meeting.

“We got to look at the North 43 route and back to Highway 5 by O’Bryants Funeral Home,” Day said. “They are still playing with how they will take the traffic around that intersection. We do feel they will have to put a traffic signal there.

“I told them, I think a northern loop would be best, but they are still working on the plans there. I know they have set an aggressive time schedule to start this. The biggest thing for Thomasville is that is going to benefit us tremendously. We will see a big increase in our traffic through the city and increased traffic means more business for our businesses.”

Ericksen was able to answer a question on the potential median size as the highway proceeds north. ALDOT is planning on having a 20-foot grass median in between the four-lane highway.

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