Screen shot 2011-09-19 at 9.48.19 PM.pngView full size(Alabama Department of Transportation)

A newly released document by the Alabama Department of Transportation provides the most detailed mapping of where the proposed Northern Beltline around Birmingham would go.

It also contains a timeline stretching out more than 20 years for the construction of the 52-mile beltline, which would follow an east-west arc from Interstate 59 near Argo to I-20/59 south of Birmingham.

The document, posted on the department’s website at dot.alabama.gov Monday evening in advance of public hearings being held next week in Gardendale and Bessemer, includes segment-by-segment satellite images with overlays of the six-lane interstate and its interchanges with other roads. The Federal Highway Administration estimates that the project will cost $4.7 billion over the course of 25 years.

An initial environmental impact study conducted on the project in 1997 estimated that 279 houses and 16 businesses would have to be relocated to make way for the road. Because of growth in the corridor and refinements to the design, that relocation number has jumped to a total of 520 relocations — 485 residences and 35 businesses.

ALDOT has finished buying land for one 3.4-mile segment of the beltline, connecting Alabama 79 and Alabama 75 near Pinson.

According to the schedule, construction on that segment could start next year. By 2013, ALDOT expects to start buying land for segments from Alabama 79 west to Interstate 65. The beltline would intersect with I-65 just north of Gardendale.

ALDOT doesn’t schedule any land buying in the other direction –from Alabama 75 to I-59 — until 2025. And land acquisition on the western leg — from U.S. 78 to the junction of I-459 and I-20/59 — isn’t

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/luoEzvpF5Dc/northern_beltline_route_detail.html