City to make Overbrook traffic improvements

The city is considering traffic improvements at Overbrook Road intersections around Mountain Brook Junior High School. Improvements to the Mountain Brook Parkway intersection are scheduled to move forward immediately.

At its May 11 meeting, the city council heard an updates on Apple Grant recommendations for the Montevallo Road-Overbrook Road intersection and the Overbrook Road-Mountain Brook Parkway/Pine Ridge Road intersection from Richard Caudle of Skipper Consultants.

Traffic from Mountain Brook Junior High and Mountain Brook Parkway currently causes congestion at Overbrook Road and Mountain Brook Parkway. Neither a traffic circle or paving would be possible at this intersection, Caudle said. Skipper recommended installing vehicle detection for all lanes at the intersection, implementing a queue detector for the westbound turn lane on Overbrook Road, installing a pedestrian signal for a crossing and installing a new traffic signal controller that would adjust the timings of the light based on field observations. The project would cost $60,000 total but could possibly come in under $50,000.

“We think it would be money well spent for the city,” Caudle said. “It won’t make everything perfect, but it will make a difference.”

Council members said they think the signal timing is needed and would like to have the changes made before school starts back in August.

At Montevallo Road and Overbrook Road, the intersection is also affected by Mountain Brook Junior High traffic as well as by traffic at the Montevallo-Church Street intersection.

“Unless the intersection at Church and Montevallo Road is solved, this will never be solved,” Caudle said.

In the short term, Skipper recommended increasing the green time at Montevallo and Church for westbound left traffic and decreasing it for eastbound and westbound through movements during the morning. Right now the first movement has 40 seconds and the second has 20 seconds; these would be flip-flopped to 20 and 40 seconds, respectively, during morning peak hours. The council recommended pursuing this small change to the timing.

For the long term, Skipper recommended construction a left turn lane on Montevallo Road westbound and extending the right turn lane on Overbrook Road northbound. These projects would cost $691,000 and $174,000 respectively.

Caudle is planning to prepare a contact for the Overbrook-Mountain Brook Parkway intersection following the May 11 meeting.