Alabama State Route 160

State Route 160 is an 18-mile (29 km) long state highway in Blount County, Alabama. The western terminus of the route is at the junction with Interstate 65 and U.S. Highway 31 at Exit 284 north of Warrior. The eastern terminus of the route is at the junction with U.S. Highway 231 in Cleveland. SR-160 is the only state highway that is exclusively located in Blount County, Alabama.

Route description

Just west of the western terminus of SR-160 at Interstate 65 is Rickwood Caverns State Park. The Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River runs parallel to the roadway for several miles and eventually crosses beneath SR-160 near the community of Nectar, Alabama. A CSX Transportation (formerly Louisville and Nashville Railroad) main rail line connecting Birmingham, Alabama and Nashville, Tennessee crosses over SR-160 at Hayden. A rare Alabama rail tunnel carries this rail line beneath a mountain just north of SR-160 near Hayden.

History

Prior to 1971, the route was designated as Blount County Road 8. The western terminus of SR-160 is approximately 25 miles (40 km) north of downtown Birmingham. Until the late in the 1990s, the route of SR-160 between Hayden and Cleveland passed through a largely rural area of the county. As urban sprawl from Birmingham has begun to spread into Blount County, numerous new subdivisions have begun to develop along the route. Much of the growth in northern Jefferson County and Blount County is in expectation of the long-anticipated construction of the Northern Beltline which has been given the designation Interstate 422. The expected date for the completion of this route is 2020.

As a result of the residential and commercial development along this route, there are plans to widen the road to four lanes. However, such plans are still being developed and as of June 2009 are still several years away from becoming reality. Due to increased traffic,and the fact that the road is still a narrow two lane through winding, hilly country, there has been an increase in deadly auto accidents along this roadway including an accident on November 29, 2007 which took the lives of three Hayden High School cheerleaders—senior, Courtney Nicely, and sophomores, Whitney Bradford and Sarah Casey. Two years later, on September 19, 2009, Kimberly "Kimmi" Jones Colley was hit head-on, and died two weeks later. That death spurred the formation of an organization for the purpose of holding Governor Bob Riley and the State Of Alabama accountable for a campaign promise made by Riley in April, 2006 to fast-track construction work to make State Highway 160.

Major intersections

The entire route is in Blount County.

References