MONTGOMERY — Speaking during the Economic Development Association of Alabama’s inaugural Rural Development Conference on Wednesday, Alabama Department of Transportation Director John Cooper addressed State Rep. Brett Easterbrook’s (R-Fruitdale) recent comments about his rural southwest Alabama district being “overlooked” since 1983 when it comes to highway investments.
Cooper’s comments came after one of the economic development professionals in the audience brought up the subject of U.S. Highway 45.
Easterbrook had cited that highway as “the deadliest highway in the state,” as well as an economic development disadvantage since it is not four-laned through his district.
Cooper on Wednesday said, “Representative Easterbrook skewers me at every opportunity over Highway 45. But he’s just one of a number around the state of Alabama who skewer me over that type of problem.”
“That problem is an overcrowded, two-lane road,” he outlined. “And when people drive on overcrowded roads, they take chances they shouldn’t take, and they make mistakes. But what we have in that category is I’ve got 32 of those roads with over 15,000 vehicles a day on them. The parts of that road in Representative Easterbrook’s district have less than 10,000 vehicles a day on them.”
“I have 100 that have between 10,000-15,000 [vehicles a day on them],” Cooper continued. “I’m only able to address about one of those per year statewide. And so I don’t belittle the problem, I don’t pretend the problem doesn’t exist, I acknowledge the problem and I admit it. But other people have problems that are just as bad, in some cases worse, that I can’t address.”
He then named another example.
“Representative Whitt up in Huntsville skewers me every week on Alabama [Highway] 53,” Cooper added. “Now, I’m an accountant — I’m a recovering accountant. So I love numbers. And I love analysis. And I believe that to the extent that a problem can be addressed in a rational way, it should be. So, the way that in my time I have come to address these two lane roads is to analyze them with key statistics…”
He advised that he keeps a running notebook in his office of these two lane roads which is updated every year. The notebook contains every county each of those roads passes through as well as the highest traffic count in each county on said roads.
“So, I try to address them in two ways: I analyze the traffic count, and I analyze what it would cost per vehicle mile traveling on that road to fix the problem,” Cooper explained.
Cooper said that he ranks each of those statistics 1-32 for each road, then taking the average of the two for each road and ranking the averages.
“In two cases, communities have come up with money — or are coming up with the money — to pay half the cost,” he noted. “That lowers the cost per traveler mile to the point where it has moved those two roads to the top of that list. One of those roads is Highway 157 in Cullman County, and one of them is Highway 261 from Helena to Hoover. Three cities have come together on that one. So that’s the way I try to address those roads.”
“You and Representative Easterbrook are absolutely correct that Highway 45 is a problem,” Cooper told the audience member in conclusion. “And I’m sorry that I can’t fix it.”
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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