By Erin Elaine Mosely
Montgomery Advertiser
ELMORE -- Those who drive across Elmore County on Alabama 14 know they have an important choice to make at the intersection of Alabama 143.
Stop and wait, or stop and bolt into traffic.
Alabama Department of Transportation engineers are working to improve the intersection that has a stop sign and a caution light and a curve that offers drivers very little notice of oncoming traffic.
About 100 people stopped at the Elmore Community Club House to look over DOT plans this week and give their input on which of three proposals would best suit the area. Under one plan, the new path of Alabama 14 would cut through the Holley Mart convenience store property at the corner of Alabama 14 and 143. Another plan moves the path of Alabama 14 behind the gas station. In the third plan, Alabama 14 remains on its current path and is widened at the intersection.
DOT officials will consider public comments when choosing the most efficient route, but right-of-way and environmental impact issues must be identified before the selected plan is shown to the community again in six months.
Craig Tauton, a DOT engineer in the Sixth Division, which maintains roads in Montgomery and Elmore counties, said all of the plans will result in two lanes in each direction with at least one left turning lane.
"This is at the concept stage just to get public opinion of lines on a map," Tauton said. "They (plans) are based on traffic volume. When you start to get 5,000 (vehicles per day), you start to consider four lanes."
Tauton said the intersection sees 18,000 cars per day.
Jean Lawrence, Elmore's mayor pro tem, said she hopes the town will retain access to the roadway after construction is complete. The post office, fire department and City Hall are about two miles from the busy intersection.
"We've had this problem with blinking lights and accidents for years," Lawrence said. "We are excited about something being done. ... Of course, we're concerned about how it's all going to fit together. We don't want to leave old Elmore out."
Ruth Duncan's church sits near the railroad overpass west of the intersection. She said the improvements are long overdue.
"I feel like if they upgrade it, the church would not have so many accidents from people coming in and out," said Duncan, a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church. "We're looking forward to this. As I understand it, I like option No. 3. It gives us more space there to have a turning lane."
Tauton said four accidents occurred on Alabama 143 near the interchange from 2002 to 2005, while 33 collisions were reported on Alabama 14 at the intersection.
Keith Holley owns the Holley Mart store at the crossroads. He favors the plan in which Alabama 14 runs into his business.
"If they do anything other than that, it will kill my sales," he said. "It'll hurt my store. It's only been there 10 years."
Whatever the plans are, Holley said, DOT needs to intervene.
"It needs something. When the (Harrah's) casino (in Wetumpka) comes in, we're going to have people from Birmingham using that route," he said.
Of course, my question is... Since when is a Harrah's going to Wetumpka?
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