MADISON COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) – Those who drive onto Old Railroad Bed Road to get to their destination may need to reroute.
Huntsville Utilities wastes no time in the new year, closing a portion of Old Railroad Bed Road on Jan. 2 from Highway 72 to Capshaw Road. This is all in the name of improving power circuits, adding a tie point in the area and reducing the time it takes to get power up and running following an outage.
“This particular infrastructure upgrade will increase reliability service to customers in that area,” Gary Whitley, a spokesperson with Huntsville Utilities, told News 19. “This particular tie that we’re making will allow us to reroute power in the event of an outage to prevent the length of the outage.”
The plan works in two phases over six months. The first aspect of the phase is the closure of Old Railroad Bed Road in said designated area. The second phase is closing Capshaw Road from Balch Road to Old Railroad Bed Road.
The roads will be relatively inaccessible from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on weekdays. For business owners who call these roads home, this is their worst nightmare.
“Well, we have supplies that come on 18-wheelers every week,” Dustin Stanley, owner of Alabama Pool Kings, said. “We got rent to pay, employees to pay.”
Stanley is in the first six months of opening his store right in the middle of Old Railroad Bed Road. Some may wonder, what was his reason for choosing that location? He says it was all about the traffic.
“The amount of people that we get by here on a daily basis in Madison,” Stanley said. “I mean, it’s, you know, it’s unreal.”
The amount of traffic he sees in January could be significantly lower. But he’s not only worried about his own business; he fears for others who also call the road home.
“We got U-Haul right here,” Stanley said. “We got, you know, the post office across the street. I mean, we’ve still got other businesses around here that’s not going to be doing well either.”
For an area that’s plagued by plenty of construction and bumper-to-bumper traffic, a chance for more congestion is the last thing many want to hear.
“It’s gonna be a problem because it’s gonna hold traffic up, screw traffic as well,” Harvest Resident Janet Snead said. “It will make me drive out of my way to get where I need to go.”
Huntsville Utilities says the primary reason for the road closures is to protect the workers but that those who need to get through will be able to.
“Local traffic as well as emergency responders, first responders will still be able to get through those roads,” Whitley said. “So it’s not a full exact closure. It’s more of a traffic management.”
Drivers are asked to take alternate routes to get to a destination to avoid further delays and congestion.
The project is expected to take six months to finish both phases.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
