Despite warnings, sewer work on Montevallo Road brings traffic chaos

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The calls came early and often Monday at Mountain Brook City Hall and have continued since then.  

People are complaining about the detour from Montevallo Road near Mountain Brook Village because Jefferson County crews are working on sewer drainage in that area. City Manager Sam Gaston has long been sounding the alarm that this work – and the resulting chaos – was on the way. 

Now it’s arrived. And for many, Gaston said, it shouldn’t be a surprise. 

“This is not new at all,” he said. “We've had meetings over a year ago with merchants in Mountain Brook Village and we've had another meeting here with them a few months ago. We've been putting stuff out via email and we've been putting stuff out on social media.  

“No, this is not a surprise,” Gaston continued. “It may be surprising to some people who may be using Montevallo Road on a daily basis who may not live in our community. But the city, the chamber, the police department. This has been pretty well widely distributed over the last several months especially, but we've had meetings as long as a year ago about it.” 

Westbound drivers from City Hall towards Mountain Brook Village can detour down Canterbury Road. They can also go straight on through and then turn onto Jemison Lane and then onto Cahaba Road. 

“Most people are going to use Cahaba Road, Mountain Brook Parkway and there'll be some on Canterbury Road,” Gaston said. “We knew there would be some chaos for the first couple of days or confusion but after a few days people are going to realize what's the best route to take.” 

The city manager said the city can't tell Jefferson County it can't repair sewers which is its responsibility. He said the city works with the county or any other utility, like Spire or Alabama Power, on such projects, trying to have good traffic plans in place.  

“The problem with this one is that it's closing a major intersection for up to five weeks,” Gaston said. “It may be shorter but right now they're saying maybe up to five weeks. Hopefully it's gonna be three to four weeks but five weeks may be how long it may take.”