| A beautiful blue winter sky with puffy clouds on a Sunday afternoon at the Tuscaloosa-Jefferson County line. This is the eastern edge of a dangerous strip of I-20/59 through west central Alabama. The barrels on the ROW in the above photograph were placed in preparation for another phase of a continuing project to widen the highway between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa to three lanes in each direction. The initial phase of the project erected double-stacked concrete barriers between the north/east- and south/west-bound lanes, thus reducing the possibility of fatal head-on collisions. As of July 2004, work continues far to the west of this area, well into Tuscaloosa County. This particular stretch has been six-laned to the I-459 junction. Rainy weather has prevented the addition of a final "bearing" layer of asphalt, after which the speed limit will be raised back to 70 mph. It will be smooth sailing for a limited time, however, as plans are being developed to create a northern beltway around Birmingham and to replace the existing two-laned portion of 20/59 (some of which is concrete) in Jefferson County. So progress and the accompanying slowdowns will return to this area soon enough. |
