A proposed road project to expand Cahaba Beach Road across the Little Cahaba River in Shelby County drew a dose of skepticism and significant opposition Tuesday night at a public information session held by the Alabama Department of Transportation at Liberty Park Middle School in Vestavia Hills.

More than 250 people attended, many upset about the plan to extend Cahaba Beach Road through currently undeveloped land just east of U.S. 280.

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.

"Land that's been bought with public dollars to protect our drinking water source is not an appropriate place."

Several attendees at Tuesday's meeting wore blue t-shirts with "Save Greater Birmingham's Drinking Water" printed across the back, or large stickers advocating the "no build" option to leave the road as it is.

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. The existing bridge has been closed to automobile traffic for decades.

Though the project area is just east of 280, Leonard said the project will not and is not intended to address congestion that on that road. When asked what the project would do to address 280 traffic, he responded "nothing."

"The purpose of this is not to mitigate traffic on 280," he said. "It is to provide a connectivity between these two roads."

This map shows proposed routes to connect Cahaba Beach Road with Sicard Hollow Road off of U.S. 280. ALDOT is proceeding to do impact studies on the southern-most routes, options 5 and 5B.

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. There would be no exits or entrances along that corridor.

"We listened to the comments that we received in our previous meetings which talked about how the development could hurt this pristine area," Leonard said. "We do not want that to happen and in order to mitigate that, we've made the decision to advance these two alternatives using controlled access."

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.

Stewart said in 15 years, this is the first time Cahaba River Society has completely opposed any version of a road project or development. Typically, the group tries to work with governments or developers to reduce the impact of the project on the watershed rather than stop it altogether. That changed with Cahaba Beach Road.

"We don't usually say a project just shouldn't move forward," she said. "And the reasons we're so deeply concerned about this project is that it poses such a risk to the drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people in the Birmingham metro area."

The Cahaba River Society created the web site savethecahaba.org to lay out its opposition to the project, which also features a 10-minute documentary film on the subject created through the Alabama Rivers Alliance's Southern Exposure film program.

Cahaba Riverkeeper David Butler said the road, which could see an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 cars daily, would introduce oil, gasoline and other pollutants into the water and would introduce the possibility of a more serious accident in which gasoline, chemicals or other dangerous substances might be spilled from a truck just upstream of the drinking water intake.

"All types of pollutants, if those things that make it into our drinking water, those will have to be filtered out," Butler said. "Eventually it will cost not just the people who use this road, but everybody who gets water from Birmingham Water Works."

Non-environmental concerns

Not all of the opposition was from environmental groups. 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.

"The only thing I can see is it provides developers an opportunity over here [off Sicard Hollow Road]," said Mark Eckman, who lives in the Edenton development off Cahaba Beach Road. "It doesn't do anything for the residents here already."

Several Edenton residents attended the meeting, all opposed to the project. They said they believe the road would hurt their property values, cause significant traffic back-ups where Cahaba Beach Road reaches U.S. 280 (at Home Depot), and were not convinced of any benefits from the project.

"I'd like to know who's asking for this," said Rod Stanfa, another Edenton resident. "Who's asking for this connectivity?"

Ashley Chang, who lives on Brook Highland Ridge overlooking what is now undisturbed woodland area, said that the selection of Options 5 and 5B as the ones to advance also bothered her.

"Everybody in our neighborhood doesn't want this option and anybody with common sense really wouldn't want this because it's the longest, most expensive choice," Chang said. "It doesn't make any sense. It's the longest, most destructive footprint within the watershed, and where is it going? Who's using this? The large population here in the middle of nowhere?

"If [people on Sicard Hollow Road] go five more minutes they can get to 119. Why ruin our water source for that?"

ALDOT representatives at the meeting said a number of options are being considered for the project, including a "no-build" option. The Department will take public comments on the proposal through August 22.