Tuscaloosa bypass remains contentious

It was decided by the city of Tuscaloosa in 1989 that they needed a bypass to the east to relieve some of the traffic on U.S. Highway 43 and U.S. Highway 82, both of which were reaching their carrying capacity and creating massive backlogs and congestion on Woolsey Finnell Bridge, which crosses the Black Warrior River.

The proposed 18-mile bypass will relieve some of this congestion and will carry traffic around the city with four lanes capable of serving over 37,000 cars per day. The pricey outlay for the road development is seen as necessary for the long-term social and economic health of the local population.

Since the late 1980s, however, only a small part of the route has been built. Phase one was completed in 2004 with the opening of the Paul Bryant Bridge, which is located half a mile to the east of Highway 82’s crossing on Black Warrior River, one of the bridges intended to see some reduction in congestion as a result.

The proposed route has been changed many times over the years, while various other routes have been considered and ultimately disregarded. The city received $6 million in 1992 from the federal government through the Land Surface Transportation Act and this funding paid for a host of studies in terms of engineering, land acquisition and actual construction. Since then, additional studies have been carried out and the route has been marginally changed due to pressure from environmentalists.

In the M-bend of Hurricane Creek, a sensitive natural habitat, the four lane road was moved slightly to the north, but the bypass must still cross the creek and environmentalists are unhappy with the negative effects it will have on the area in terms of pollution, the waste generated through construction and the road noise that will be constant after the road opens.

A group set up to oppose the creek crossing have said that the bypass will fundamentally ruin Hurricane Creek’s reputation as a place for solitude and reconnection with nature, while its status as a jewel for recreation and environmental aesthetic appeal will be destroyed.

The plans are going ahead though, the Tuscaloosa County Park and Recreation Authority, which owns the land over which the highway will pass, has sold 75 acres of its 249 acres to the Alabama Department of Transport (ALDOT), however the Park and Recreation Authority have indicated that all but 30 acres of the land will be sold back to them once construction is complete.

Nothing can be done until a new environmental impact assessment is carried out, though. According to Tuscaloosa news media reports, the federal government stipulates that if no concrete action is taken on construction in three years, then a new environmental impact report is needed.

The federal government is funding the project and ALDOT will therefore have to submit another impact report.

On the other side of Bryant Bridge, as the bypass winds through Cottondale and Holt, it will require the destruction and removal of over 250 houses and 13 businesses, before reaching the contentious bridge over Hurricane Creek.

For the several hundred people who will be forced to move, the slow progress being made can feel like a kind of purgatory. Many of them want to move, but are stuck, as they cannot sell their house because no one wants to buy a house that will be condemned in a few years, while the local government will not begin buying houses for condemning until it has submitted another environmental report to the federal government.

The federal government will then access the report and decide whether to provide funding for the Alabama Department of Transport to start buying right of way along the land needed to construct the multilane bypass.