Interstate through Birmingham closing for more than 1 year
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – Traffic through Alabama’s largest city won’t be normal for months as the state’s busiest road closes for a construction project.
Crews building a replacement for Interstate 59/20 through Birmingham will close the highway beginning Monday. Some ramps closed last week.
State officials say the highway carries more traffic than any other road in Alabama. The new interstate won’t open for more than a year, and construction costs are expected to exceed $700 million.
Transportation officials are encouraging drivers to use Interstate 459 to bypass the construction zone, and they’re laid out detours on a website about the project.
The project is replacing elevated highways built more than 45 years ago to accommodate 80,000 vehicles daily. Transportation officials say I-59/20 currently carries more than twice that number of vehicles.
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