Much of the land that would be used for the proposed project was purchased by the Birmingham Water Works — with ratepayer funds — to protect a major drinking water intake on the river.
"There are many places where development is appropriate in the watershed," said Beth Stewart, executive director of the Cahaba River Society, one of the groups organizing opposition to the project.
ALDOT’s East Central Region Engineer DeJarvis Leonard said the road is meant to restore connectivity between Cahaba Beach Road and Sicard Hollow Road, which previously were connected by a dirt road and an old iron and wood bridge across the river.
This map shows proposed routes to connect Cahaba Beach Road with Sicard Hollow Road off of U.S. 280.
ALDOT The department had proposed multiple similar routes to connect the two roads, and Leonard said two of those, Options 5 and 5B on the map above are advancing to the next stage, which includes environmental impact studies and additional planning work.
Environmental issues Leonard said ALDOT intends to make the roads controlled-access, to limit development in the sensitive areas around the river in response to concerns about the water intake.
Still, environmental groups like Cahaba River Society, Cahaba Riverkeeper, Alabama Rivers Alliance and others have said the road — even a limited-access road — would result in dirtier water being pumped through the intake to hundreds of thousands of customers in the Birmingham metro area.
That changed with Cahaba Beach Road.
Several nearby residents also said they opposed the project, which in their minds was mostly about connecting undeveloped land on the other side of the river to U.S. 280 than about alleviating traffic concerns or restoring a connectivity that was lost several decades ago.
Several Edenton residents attended the meeting, all opposed to the project.