Alabama workers practice lane switching in storm evacuations

Bob Johnson
Associated Press
Published: May 14, 2008

MONTGOMERY - When a hurricane is bearing down on the Gulf Coast, turning Alabama’s busy Interstate 65 into a four-lane northbound highway can save lives, officials say - but reversing the flow of traffic is a scary, dangerous process.

It involves making sure no stragglers are traveling 70 mph or faster in the wrong direction and that normal entrances and exits are blocked. The reversal was done successfully before
Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and
Hurricane Dennis in 2005 with only one accident and no
fatalities.

State troopers and transportation workers are getting trained this week how to switch the flow of traffic with little confusion and no accidents.

Gov. Bob Riley told a room full of troopers and Department of Transportation workers Tuesday that making all lanes of Interstate 65 one-way northbound during a hurricane evacuation would save lives.

“The best way to save lives in a hurricane is to evacuate coastal areas,” Riley said.

Hurricane season begins June 1.

The state workers are practicing a plan that makes all lanes of I-65 northbound for about 140 miles from just north of the Tensaw River in Baldwin County to downtown Montgomery. It takes about 300 troopers and DOT workers to handle intersections, make traffic flow in the right direction and to answer telephone lines to explain it all to motorists.

The DOT workers and troopers received mostly classroom training Tuesday. On Wednesday they will travel to assigned spots at 25 interchanges that would have to be blocked during a turnaround.

No interchanges will be closed Wednesday, but each interchange will be manned briefly and DOT workers will make sure they can get needed equipment to the interstate highway.

DOT Director Joe McInnes and Riley said the interstate flow has only been reversed twice. They said state workers were prepared to reverse traffic again before Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but canceled the plan when the storm moved westward into Mississippi and Louisiana.

McInnes said I-65 is the only Alabama highway that would be
reversed in preparation for a hurricane. U.S. 231 and U.S. 331 are major hurricane evacuation routes through south Alabama from northwest Florida beaches. But McInnes said those highways are not limited access like interstate highways and it would be impossible to reverse them and make sure vehicles were not able to get on headed in the wrong direction.

McInnes said I-65 is considered the primary route for evacuating coastal areas of Alabama, northwest Florida and parts of Mississippi.
“If we can get them to Montgomery, we can save lots of lives,” McInnes said.