Life Before Hwy 280
I'm sure there were no traffic jams!
If
you live in Birmingham, sooner or later you will experience one of the busiest
and most congested roads in the state, Hwy 280. Even though parts of the Hwy 280
corridor have six lanes, that's still not enough and during rush hour traffic
slows to a snail's pace. There are several ideas that have been conceived to
alleviate the traffic problems on Hwy 280. Some of these ideas include building
a second level of traffic lanes elevated above the main roadway, some form of
mass transit system leading from northern Shelby County to downtown Birmingham
and even carpool lanes. To date, nothing has been done to address the traffic
problem.
In
the picture you see above, you'll note that the first road leading over Double
Oak Mountain was started in 1914 and opened in 1921. I bet when Mr. Sidney Lee
first envisioned this road, he never imagined that there would be a new, modern
road making a more direct route over Double Oak Mountain. This new, modern road
is what we know as Hwy 280. I also would be willing to bet that Mr. Sidney Lee
never, ever imagined that the amount of traffic on this new, modern road would
reach a point where four to six lanes could not comfortably support the flow of
traffic.
I
tried to find some information on Google about Mr. Sidney Lee and the work he
did to create the first road over Double Oak Mountain, but could find none. It's
a shame that I couldn't find any info about Mr. Sidney Lee as he helped make
travel from southeastern Jefferson County into northern Shelby County a reality.
There are some beautiful views along this road, especially from the scenic
overlook at the top of the mountain. Another engineering marvel in the area is
the train tunnel that actually goes completely through the mountain and is still
in use today by CSX. You can view one end of the tunnel by turning off this main
road onto Tunnel Road. As soon as you reach the train tracks, just look to your
left, but please do not go into the tunnel as these train tracks are quite
active.
This
is a very easy geocache to find and once you find it you'll note that it's filled
with small padlocks. The padlocks symbolize the 'deadlock' that occurs on Hwy
280 each day. The container is quite small and will only be suitable for very
small trade items. The container is a Lock 'N Lock container. After you sign the
log, please make sure all four 'locks' are closed so that the contents will stay
dry. The cache shouldn't take more than just a couple of minutes to find and
there is an area where one can pull-off the road.
*** There is a first-to-find
prize included in the geocache. ***
The prize is an AT&T 20 minute prepaid phone card. The first-to-find
geocacher will need to take the card then email me and I'll provide
via return email, the PIN number for the card.
I
hope you enjoy finding the geocache and make sure to visit the scenic overlook
that's right up the road from the geocache. I sincerely hope that you don't get
caught in one of the traffic jams on Hwy 280 when traveling to the geocache :-)