Photo courtesy of Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Gerald Garner
To the chagrin of Gerald Garner, chicanes will be among the tools used to deter cut-through traffic on Halbrook and Arundel in Mountain Brook.
The Mountain Brook City Council approved a series of measures – including chicanes and speed humps – to address resident concerns of motorists using Halbrook Lane and Arundel Drive to avoid other thoroughfares that were designed for more traffic.
The actions are in response to the request of residents for the city to vacate streets, making them private to stop motorists from cutting through their streets.
“There is no great answer at all,” Council President Virginia Smith said, acknowledging that no remedy is ideal. “If we go through the process of closing the road, we think we’re going to have opposition. The only way to justify the road should be closed is to go through this process to reduce traffic through alternate means.”
Mayor Stewart Welch III said city leaders have received a number of emails from Vestavia Hills residents that spoke of litigation in response to closing the street. He said legal action could also be taken by the federal government on behalf of the post office in that area.
“We need to go through this process so if we do get into litigation, we will have done everything we could short of closing the road,” the mayor said.
Garner said he couldn’t vote yes on the complete plan if it included chicanes.
“I just can’t fathom putting two nearly 50-foot-long plastic dividers in front of residents’ houses,” he said. “I’ll trade speed humps for chicanes all day long but I just can’t do that.”
Traffic engineer Richard Caudle said speed humps should be installed in June, adding that there is a 60-day delay on getting the materials for the chicanes. Public Works Director Ronnie Vaughn said the chicanes could cost from $15,000 to $20,000 and the speed humps from $30,000 to $35,000.
The council also passed a resolution supporting an application for Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) funding sidewalks. While residents along Old Leeds Lane lobbied for the funds be used for sidewalks on their street, the panel opted to honor a previous commitment to installing sidewalks on Brookwood Road.
In other action, the council:
- Appointed Cleo Kathryn Gorman to a full term on the Villages Design Review Committee. She was appointed to fill an unexpired term in March.
- Accepted the low responsible bid of $407,129 from CB&A Construction for the sidewalk extension on North Woodridge Road from Robin Drive to Locksley Drive. There were six bidders for the project.
- Agreed to a transfer of right of way agreement with the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) for the roundabout project.
- Ratified an agreement between the city and Lower Brothers Tennis Courts for resurfacing the tennis courts at Mountain Brook High School.
- Agreed to change out the scoreboards at the athletic complex, reverting to the scoreboards that were replaced a few years ago. Mountain Brook Athletics wants wireless controls for the scoreboard, which are only available on the previously used Coca-Cola scoreboards.
“Coke, as part of their contract, is going to do all the work and pay for the new scoreboards and the wireless part,” Parks Director Shanda Williams said. “We just need to agree to let them swap them out.
“The new ones (scoreboards) we got are inferior to the old ones we had,” she said, adding that the soon-to-be replaced scoreboards will be declared surplus items and made available for auction.
- Authorized an agreement between Mountain Brook and Homewood for the bilateral lending of fire trucks and other fire fighting equipment during emergencies and disasters.
Deputy Fire Chief Stacey Cole said the Mountain Brook department is having issues with the supply chain, which can yield issues repairing a fire truck.
“We got down to our last fire truck,” he said. “We have two reserve pumpers and one reserve aerial apparatus. We got down to the last one that we had available.
“We're like, if we needed a truck, we don't have an agreement already with any of the cities near us,'” Cole continued. “We reached out to Homewood and they entered into an agreement with us that if we needed their truck or vice versa, that we've got an agreement in place that we could actually go over to Homewood or Homewood could come over to us and borrow one of our reserve trucks so that they can provide services.”
