National & International

Metro & State

| North Birmingham -- The Citgo station at Finley Boulevard and I-65 isn’t usually busy in the middle of a workday. But lately, people have been flocking to this convenience store at all hours to get more than just a fill-up or fountain drink.

Roy Washburn of Decatur is one of those who walked into the station to ask for directions around a major detour. The I-65 South overpass was closed earlier this month after a fatal tanker truck explosion left it impassible.

“Well this is the first time we’ve been here since the accident closed the road (Were you concerned about that when you left Decatur?) Yes I was. I was concerned because we left a little early to be sure we didn’t get lost in trying to find our way to the doctor's (office).”

The overpass has been torn down. Workers are in the midst of reconstructing it. The Alabama Dept. of Transportation, or ALDOT, says it could take up to three months and more than 2 million dollars to fix.

But that’s the easy part of a much bigger problem for ALDOT: how to make the interchange more efficient and less congested. It has, after all, been given the notorious name 'Malfunction Junction.'

Roy Washburn makes the trip through Birmingham quite often.

“I don’t know what they could do to it, but I get tensed up every time I go through there.”

And he’s not alone. Drivers for years have complained there are too-few lanes to work with, which can cause bottlenecking. And engineers have concluded that the entrance and exit ramps off to the left and right are outdated. Most big freeway interchanges today are constructed with ramps only to the right.

“It’s like putting 10 pounds of lard in a one pound bucket. Sometimes it can ’t be done quick enough!!”

Birmingham Police Sergeant Mike Roberson patrolled the downtown interchange for twelve years.

“I don’t know if the designer was on crack or what when he made this... (laughs) you know, I guess the limited space, they had to do what they could...”

Sgt. Roberson says the hodge-podge of merging cars and trucks -- some dashing from one side of the freeway to the other -- is dangerous.

It's an awkward intersection – one that’s seen more than its fair share of crashes in the last few years. Standing at the site of the most recent and worst accident is ALDOT Director Paul Bowlin.

“Obviously, some improvements need to be made…and we do have some short-term improvements to be coming up over the next 2 or 3 years.”

Among those improvements will be widening of some of the I-65 lanes, beginning with the new southbound overpass and ramp to the northbound lanes. But he says federal and state dollars have been slow in coming for a complete overhaul.

Part of the reason for the lack of money is the accelerated funding for Birmingham’s northern beltline project. Republican Congressman Spencer Bachus helped make the northern half of the I-459 loop around Jefferson County a high priority – one that might help solve the current problem.

“You don’t want to spend 750 million or 500 million or 400 million here...when you could take that same money and put it on a Northern Beltline and divert a lot of the traffic around this junction. One reason we have such a problem here is because we don’t have a circle around our city.”

For now, the only major construction going on at the interchange is the result of a tragic accident. Aside from the widening of ramps over the coming months and years, it looks like transportation officials will try to make this junction functional by giving motorists the most options to avoid it altogether.

~Steve Chiotakis, January 27, 2002