After nearly 25 years, the expansion of Alabama 157 is finished

It's been nearly a quarter of a century since the first piece of dirt was turned.

Now, the expansion of Alabama 157 from two to four lanes has officially ended without fanfare and with disbelief from people who have joked that they would never live to drive on it.

"I still don't believe it; it's a miracle," Lauderdale County resident Jason Tyler said, trying to keep from laughing. "Seriously. I always thought this day would never come."

In the early 1980s, widening Alabama 157 seemed to have merit. The road was to give motorists - and 18-wheelers that move products across the country - easier and safer access from the Shoals to Interstate 65 in Cullman.

Turning Alabama 157 into a four-lane highway also was to stimulate economic development in northwest Alabama, which had long been told it could not compete for big industrial projects because it lacked an interstate or easy access to one.

Getting the 56-mile project done has been far from simple, though.

Despite promises from candidate after candidate who stumped the Shoals looking for votes, progress has been slow and frustrating for area residents.

Now, nearly 25 years and $161 million later, Alabama 157 is four lanes from Muscle Shoals to the interstate exchange in Cullman.

The highway travels through portions of four counties: Colbert, Lawrence, Morgan and Cullman.

"It's been a long, hard struggle," said state Sen. Bobby Denton, D-Muscle Shoals, who has been in office since the project began.

Retracing the history of the highway project would certainly conjure feelings of frustration, if not anger,

among those who have counted on its completion.

Denton said initial discussions about a four-lane road between the Shoals and Cullman actually began in the 1950s with former Gov. Jim Folsom Sr. He said Folsom's administration purchased 90 percent of the land needed to make it happen, but changes in federal guidelines required more land for a four-lane highway. Instead, a two-lane road was built.

Since expansion of Alabama 157 was started in January 1983, the state transportation department has started and completed dozens of road projects. Among those are construction of the I-565 spur connecting Huntsville with I-65 near Decatur, a 20-mile project.

The widening of U.S. 280 from Birmingham to Auburn, a 140-mile project, took about 30 years to complete.

There are many other examples.

Meanwhile, just over 2 miles a year - on average - were completed on the Alabama 157 project.

Watching projects spring up in other areas of the state prompted a familiar question - what took so long?

There are many aspects to that answer, with a lack of money being an issue for Alabama 157 and similar projects statewide. Most will tell you, however, it revolves around politics.

Alabama is somewhat unique in how road projects are prioritized. The governor appoints the transportation director, who ultimately decides what road projects are done and which ones are pushed to the back burner to be addressed another day.

It's no secret that politicians, once they are in office, want to repay those who helped them get elected. Often, the payback involves building a new road in the supporter's backyard. In some cases, road projects are stopped in one part of the state so the transportation director can deliver on the new governor's promises.

"Too many times, good roads that need to be built get started, and then we change governors, and they drop them," Denton said. "There's no better example than 157."

The perspective that politics have hampered the development of Alabama 157 is not just a matter of sour grapes for Shoals residents.

"We've tried to depoliticize road building from time to time, but it is still very much in the political process," said Bill Stewart, professor emeritus at the University of Alabama.

"Localities, particularly counties that are on the side of the winning gubernatorial candidate, tend to fare better in the allocation of funds than those who voted for the opponent of the successful candidate. That's just natural in politics, you want to reward those that helped you get where you are."

Stewart said a governor's familiarity with an area and its roads also plays a role in the priority given to projects.

"None of those governors (who have held office over the past 25 years) come from northwest Alabama; there's nobody from Lauderdale, Colbert, Franklin counties," Stewart said.

"That's what the problem is, most governors don't drive the roads," Denton said.

Even when road building benefits the area, the politics can be personal, according to legislators.

"We've built a lot of roads in Alabama where they don't need to be built," Denton said. "Roads need to be built where they are needed, not where somebody wants them."

Denton has been in the Legislature for nearly 30 years and said he has seen his district of Colbert and Lauderdale counties victimized often when change has come to the governor's office.

Efforts to derail the politics of road projects have been unsuccessful. Denton has been a longtime advocate of forming a highway commission that would prioritize road projects in Alabama based on need and make sure one project is completed before another is started.

"The governors all think it's a good idea until they become governor," said Denton, who often introduced bills creating a highway commission in recent sessions. "Without the administration pushing (the commission), it's not going

anywhere."

The Shoals ended up on the right side of the governor's race in 1998 with the election of Don Siegelman. The result was the biggest money surge appropriated to the Alabama 157 project.

Siegelman, a Democrat, needed heavy support from the Shoals, one of the last remaining Democratic strongholds in the state, to get elected.

Shortly after being elected, Siegelman increased spending on Alabama 157 nearly tenfold from $2.6 million in 1999 when he took office to $23.5 million in 2003. His reason: "I traveled that road a lot for professional and personal reasons since 1972."

"From the (Gov. George) Wallace administration through the Folsom administration and the (Fob) James administration, there were stops and starts on little small stretches of that road," said Siegelman, who was recently convicted in a federal bribery case involving contributions to his lottery campaign fund.

"I became concerned about economic development and job growth in the Quad-Cities area," he added. "We wanted to attract an automobile manufacturer up there and I knew that we couldn't really do a whole lot about the interstate system. I knew that without getting 157 four-laned, it was going to be a major obstacle to economic development along that corridor, particularly the Quad-Cities area."

Working with his transportation director, Mack Roberts, all remaining segments of the Alabama 157 project were put under contract, "so we would be sure that 157 would be completed as best I could direct that it be done."

Siegelman also ordered several millions of dollars of transportation funds to other projects, such as the six-laning of I-59/I-20 from Bessemer to Tuscaloosa - at the expense of other projects that had been started.

Current Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican, did not intervene in the Alabama 157 project when he succeeded Siegelman. In fact, he embraced the project and became a strong advocate of getting it finished.

He and members of his administration are trying to work out details of putting together an official Alabama 157 opening ceremony later this week.

"It's been a long time in coming, but it's something that is really good for the entire northwestern part of the state," Roberts said of the widening project. "It gives a connection that should have been provided in the interstate design system."

Roberts has certainly seen the system at work. He was assistant transportation director under Wallace (1983-87) when the four-laning began. He was later transportation director for Gov. Guy Hunt (1993), Gov. James Folsom Jr. (1993-95) and Siegelman (1999-2001).

"It's politics," he said, adding later that means all road building is subject to the push and pull of politicians and local residents.

"I'd put it in terms of whoever shouted the loudest," Roberts said.

Some argue that the delays in completing Alabama 157 may be a matter of public perception, rather than fact.

"The expectation from the public was that it would be done in just a few years," Roberts said. "It's taken a long time, but it's not unusual."

Transportation officials can point to many other road projects that have suffered a similar fate to Alabama 157, which is also known as the University of North Alabama Highway.

Tuscumbia Mayor Bill Shoemaker, a local division engineer for the transportation department during much of the project, said there were calls to widen Alabama 157 in the early 1980s, but the traffic counts did not warrant an expenditure of that magnitude.

Money instead went to projects in other parts of the state where traffic counts were higher, he said.

Shoemaker said traffic counts along the highway began to increase in the 1990s, which led to small 5- and 6-mile widening projects along the highway.

Shoemaker said there wasn't enough money appropriated to Alabama 157 for much more than a couple phases at a time.

An argument can be made that a significant amount of money has been wasted during the nearly 25-year history of the project.

Had Alabama 157 received priority status when work began in 1983, the entire project would have cost about $97 million in 1983. Instead, rising costs for labor and materials pushed the final price tag to $161.5 million.

Two-thirds of the road's cost came since 2000, during a period when $117 million was spent on the road.

But getting all the money up front to complete any major road project in Alabama is rare.

Many people who live along the highway say the wait has been worth it. Others, especially those who lost land as a result of the project or have had to endure months - even years - of tractors and bulldozers essentially parked in their front yards, think differently.

"There's no telling why it took so long to build a road like that," said Sheffield resident Kenneth Hamm. "It could have been done quicker if they had stayed on it."

Thomas Wright, of Muscle Shoals, said he spent much of his 25 years as a truck driver traveling Alabama 157, and he recalls the congestion and slow traffic when the road was just two lanes. He said the highway was not safe.

"It's 100 percent better. You don't have to worry about four-wheelers pulling out in front of you," Thomas Wright said, using trucker lingo for automobiles. "It's a whole lot easier."

Having the road completed will affect those who live and do business on Alabama 157.

Jimmy Arnold is owner of Arnold's Truck Stop and Restaurant, which is on Alabama 157 just outside Muscle Shoals.

"It brings a lot of trucking business, and we'll probably see more," Arnold said.

His one complaint: "There are too many red lights at Moulton; they keep putting them up."

Few major towns line Alabama 157. Moulton and Battleground contrast markedly when reviewing how their communities have been affected as their portion of the four-laning project has been completed.

Moulton has seen growth, particularly in the retail sector, and Battleground has started welcoming travelers from outside the region.

Economic development and government leaders from the Shoals to Cullman see nothing but good things ahead as a result of the highway's expansion.

"It takes our area to a new level," said Muscle Shoals Mayor David Bradford. "It will definitely make a big difference in so many ways."

One thing is for sure, Alabama 157 can no longer be held up as an example of what's wrong with the state's transportation system.

Billy Murphy, a 42-year-old Lawrence County resident, said he used to joke about the lack of progress on Alabama 157.

"All the politicians and everybody else, we knew they were lying when they told us it was their priority," Murphy said. "We've laughed about it, cussed about it and complained about it. It reached the point a long time ago where I quit getting mad about it.

"It has just been a part of life, to see them out there working day after day, month after month and year after year. I always wondered what they were really accomplishing. I always figured I'd die before they finished. I don't know what to fuss about now."

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 740-5720 or trevor.stokes@timesdaily.com.

Russ Corey can be reached at 740-5738 or russ.corey@timesdaily.com.