The long-awaited repaving and re-striping of the Red Mountain Expressway is expected to begin the week of May 15th, the Alabama Department of Transportation has confirmed.

The start of the repaving project was first reported by WVTM 13 last week.

Year-Long Project

The new surface for Red Mountain Expressway is the final piece of a year-long project on the historic roadway.

The following safety improvements installed include:

Tearing out the old concrete in the median and guardrail
Putting in concrete shoulder and concrete barrier wall and retrofitting the bridge rail
Adding an auxiliary lane between Highland Avenue and 21st Avenue S. This means the lane that you use to merge will actually be connected from one exit to the other

New and Improved

Originally, built to handle 32,000 vehicles a day 50 years ago, today nearly 100,000 vehicles travel on Red Mountain Expressway daily. The new improvements have made it more safer and efficient.

What do you think of the new improvements on Red Mountain Expressway? Can’t wait for the road to be repaved? Tell us your favorite Red Mountain Expressway story on social media by tagging us at @bhamnow