Residents give input on new river bridge options

May 4—The meeting on a Tennessee River bridge feasibility study Tuesday evening brought suggestions from the public on possible locations for a new bridge, changes to existing bridges and even concerns about the impact on duck hunting.

TTL Inc. fielded input for the study of a possible new bridge from more than 60 local residents during a public hearing at Turner-Surles Community Center.

Jennifer Harper, TTL's lead consultant on the study, said they were "very pleased" with the turnout for the public meeting.

"Decatur residents are very passionate about this bridge and how it impacts their daily commutes and lives," Harper said.

A $1 million federal grant combined with a $1 million match by the city of Decatur are funding the study that is seeking a location for a new bridge west of the Hudson Memorial bridges on U.S. 31.

A primary reason for the study is to evaluate solutions for U.S. 31/Alabama 20 traffic problems. Harper said they've heard a lot of complaints that "if there's an accident, a flat tire or anything on the (Hudson) bridge, it just shuts down."

She said she also heard concerns about the possibility of a traffic shutdown if a barge were to hit and damage one of the Hudson spans.

Limestone County Commission Chairman Collin Daly said he attended the public meeting because he knows the study and possible plans impact his county.

While Decatur funded the half of the study by itself, Daly said his commission will have to get involved in the study because a new bridge would connect at some point in his county.

"Like any other project, we'll have to see the final plan to see what our feasibility will be," Daly said. "It will tie into Limestone County, and my engineers are looking to see how it would tie into the existing roadways in the area. It's going to tie into U.S. 31 or Interstate 65 at some point."

The study area of possible bridge locations ranges from the Lakeview community of Lawrence County in the west to Belle Mina just past I-65 in the east and from East Moulton Street in Decatur on the south side of the river to the Athens city limits on the north end of the area.

Harper said a lot of people are interested in the environment and they want to protect sensitive areas along the banks of the river.

"They made that loud and clear," Harper said.

Smith Avenue Southwest resident Tom McMeans was one of the people who expressed this concern.

"A new bridge is sorely needed, but they need to make sure they minimize the impact on the Swan Creek Wildlife Management Area," McMeans said. "Swan Creek is the prime area for duck hunting between Florence and Guntersville."

McMeans said the other concern is the Swan Creek WMA Shooting Range on Harris Station Road.

"It has been upgraded and it is manned by range safety conservation officers," McMeans said. "It's probably the prime shooting area in northern Alabama."

McMeans said he thinks the bridge "should go as far west of Swan Creek as possible and maybe thread the needle between Swan Creek Management Area and Mallard-Fox management area, continue north and then turn east to connect with where Buc-ee's service station is (Huntsville-Browns Ferry Road) at Interstate 65."

Forrest Burke, of Red Bank Road, said he attended the meeting for fact-finding about the planning process as a member of the Morgan County Republican Party executive committee.

"There are more factors in play and agencies that want to say no than want to say yes," Burke said. "Threading the needle about where to put a new road (and bridge) is going to be a set of tradeoffs. There is no one perfect place. If there was a perfect place, it would have already been built."

Burke said negotiating a location will be a big part of the process of getting a bridge "so the location is acceptable to these agencies and feasible to taxpayers."

TTL had four large maps of the study area for residents to draw a bridge with a magic marker in the locations they think are the best possible routes. Most seemed to prefer that the south end of the bridge be near where Beltline Road Southwest hits Alabama 20. Placement of the bridge farther west, closer to Nucor Steel, was also popular.

Meanwhile, residents seemed unsure about the northern shore connection point for the bridge. Several chose the north end of the U.S. 31 causeway and points farther west on Swan Creek Management Area that would eventually connect to Sandy Road and Huntsville Browns Ferry Road near Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant.

Burke said he thinks the chosen route may follow the route chosen in a 2014 Alabama Department of Transportation study for a toll bridge.

The state wanted a private company to construct and operate a $444 million bridge from Wilson Street Northwest, west of Ingalls Harbor, to Alabama 20, just east of U.S. 31. The plan also called for widening Alabama 20 north of the river and making it a toll road. The state killed the plan after objections from Decatur residents.

The Ingalls Harbor connection spot is now the location for a planned $30 million commercial and residential development.

"It will be based on cost per mile because cost is always a factor," Burke said. "I think it will be somewhere in the vicinity where they chose before because it would have the smallest impact, but that doesn't necessarily change the traffic issues."

Don Collins, of Eighth Street Southwest, said he doesn't think they will go with his suggestion of not building an additional bridge.

Collins said he thinks they should replace the southbound bridge with a three-lane bridge that crosses over Sixth Avenue Northeast and add limited-access ramps off Wilson and Church streets for both bridges. He would also add a third lane to the southbound side of the causeway.

"Then you would have three lanes for each direction and eliminate trouble points for daily traffic," Collins said. "It would eliminate the turn (from Wilson Street left to the bridge) where the trucks flip over all of the time."

However, Harper said the study won't just focus on a new bridge. She said it will also look at ways to solve the traffic problems along the U.S. 31 causeway, over the bridge and into Decatur.

"This is not just a capacity issue," Harper said. "Obviously, the driver for the bridge is the need for additional capacity but there are choke points on both sides that affect the city of Decatur, the Y-intersection and then downtown Decatur.

"You can't fix the capacity of the bridge without fixing the issues with U.S. 31. It's a wholesale corridor that we'll look at and it has to encompass these areas."

Jeff and Lawana Jeffers live on Market Street Northeast in condominiums just west of the Hudson Memorial bridges. He said they told the TTL employees that, if the city wants to continue improving Wilson Street, add the new Ingalls Harbor development and improve Rhodes Ferry Park, "they've got to get rid of the traffic on Wilson Street. They have to make sure tourists and residents can use that area."

"You can build four bridges but they're all going to come to the same pinch point at Wilson Street," he said.

Lawana Jeffers said she thinks rerouting the trucks would solve the congestion problems with the private vehicles.

"We can see the traffic on the bridge every morning and every evening from our condo," Lawana Jeffers said. "It is just stop and go, stop and go."

Harper said the comment period will be open through June 2. The public can go to the Metropolitan Planning Organization's website, www.cityofdecatural.com/departments/metropolitan-planning-organization, to see the details of the study and then send comments to TTL at the listed email address, she said.

She said TTL plans to return later this summer to show the public some possible preliminary plans as part of the study and get comments again on this suggestion. TTL is working on completing the study by October.

— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432. Twitter @DD_BayneHughes.