Orange Beach, Ala. – (OBA) – Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon said as the project continues to widen Canal Road, he’s learned something knew about the city he has guided since 2008.

“There are many, many traffic engineers in this city that I did not know existed that know much better than us how to design a roadway,” Kennon said after a joint city council meeting on April 18. “So, I’m going to beg their forgiveness and try to explain our thought process on Canal Road.”

It seems the mayor and other city officials are fielding lots of questions from concerned residents on plans for the road project especially between Doc’s and the roundabout under construction. Plans call for a median along that stretch of roadway so anyone turning east onto Canal Road from State Route 161 will head to the roundabout – or U-about as the mayor calls it – to head back west to get to those two restaurants. The only break in the median would be at Callaway Drive so cars can turn south into the Justice Center’s north entrance.

“On Canal Road east the roundabout is not a true roundabout as in an intersection,” Kennon said. “It is a roundabout there to offer a U-turn to stop traffic from stopping and making a left into Doc’s, GT’s etcetera in busy times, in the summertime when the traffic is stopped by someone making a left turn. It backs up into the intersection there in front of Doc’s.”

And, causes a ripple effect throughout the intersection and on traffic going in all directions there.

“That then creates a cascading effect which sets all of our (light) phases off, totally reduces the efficiency and effectiveness of moving traffic north, east and west,” Kennon said. “So, hopefully now there will be a barrier everyone will have to go down to the U-about to make a U-turn to come back and make a right into GT’s, Doc’s etcetera.”

Director of Community Development Kit Alexander said questions have been asked about making a center turn lane from State Route 161 in the same area where the median is planned. But that design of the roadway also includes improvements to help eastbound traffic on Canal turn south to the beach.

“But what they don’t understand is about extending that lane to turn left onto 161,” Alexander said. “That was prevented by limited right of way and we lost the ability to put in a center turn lane to accommodate those left turns. That was looked at but we wanted to make sure that we were getting more people onto 161 and were unable to have that center turn lane and had to push them down to the roundabout.”

It's one of three things including the roundabout Kennon cited in his talk on the ongoing work that will be integral in helping motorists navigate the intersection more smoothly.

“The queue lane for the left turn onto 161 headed to the beaches is too short,” Kennon said. “And what it does is essentially create a single line of traffic when we can move two lines to that redlight much more efficiently. By doing this we’re going to be able to extend that cue lane at least twice and maybe three times so that we can queue up significantly more traffic in the left lane so we can move more traffic per phase headed west or south. That’s going to help tremendously in moving traffic through that intersection.”

The third component is restriping the far-left turn lane from State Route 161 west onto Canal Road. There is a double turn lane going onto Canal from State Route 161.

“Hopefully we’re going to be able to queue up two lanes of traffic much further back toward the beach and then we can move probably 25 to 30 percent more volume through the redlight per green light phase,” he said.

See related story: Kennon says Canal Road bypass in Orange Beach 'should happen'

Once those are complete, the Alabama Department of Transportation will begin preliminary work on a bypass of Canal Road starting in the area of Pep Boys and south of the Commons shopping center and McDonald’s to State Route 161. Alexander said the city was awaiting word from a Restore Act grant application to fund the project and once that happens design can begin on the project.

“There’s three things going on in that intersection and if all three come together it should make it a much more efficient and effective traffic signal or intersection,” Kennon said. “Ultimately that will go away because one day, hopefully soon, there will be a bypass behind the Commons and Pep Boys that will move almost 70 percent of all our traffic on a four-lane road east and south.”