
Emily Featherston
Community members look at a map of Crosshaven Drive, and a mock up of potential improvements.
For many residents of Cahaba Heights or drivers who frequent the area, it wouldn't take hard data to figure out that the traffic on Crosshaven Drive can be heavy and difficult to navigate.
And Tuesday evening, those observations and opinions were confirmed when Skipper Consulting presented the results of a recent traffic study of the road.
The presentation was part of a meeting scheduled by City of Vestavia Hills officials and staff, and brought together the community, engineers looking at Crosshaven and Jefferson County representatives to take a more focused look at an issue that has been discussed at numerous meetings in the past.
City Manager Jeff Downes began the meeting by introducing Richard Caudle of Skipper and Bob Portera of Neel-Schaffer. Skipper did the traffic study and provided a set of recommendations, which Need-Schaffer used to draw up a preliminary plan and provide an early look at possible costs.
Caudle explained the process Skipper went through to gather data, which included setting out traffic counters, taking video of traffic and doing drive-by recognizance to get an idea for the pressure points and scale of the traffic issues.
Crosshaven has three major segments, Caudle explained: the northern-most end closest to Overton Road; the intersection with Green Valley Road; and the southern-most end closest to The Summit and intersecting with Cahaba Heights Road.
Caudle said their report generally showed 11,000 daily trips northbound and about 10,500 daily trips southbound. The average speed, with the legal limit being 25 miles per hour, generally hovered around 31-33 miles per hour, but the "85th Percentile," which Caudle said is what engineers use when designing roads, was closer to 35 miles per hour.
An overwhelming majority of the traffic on Crosshaven is from individual cars, with only 3 or 4 percent of vehicles being commercial trucks or heavy equipment, he said.
The most visible symptoms, Caudle said, can be seen both at peak a.m. and p.m. times and throughout the day as long queues form at each of Crosshaven's major intersections. Some lines to turn regularly stretch back hundreds of feet and cause stop-and-go traffic frequently throughout the day.
Caudle said when looking at intersections, Skipper assigns a grade on the road's ability to meet the demand, on a scale of A-F. Caudle used U.S. 280 at p.m. rush hour as an example of an "F."
For the majority of Crosshaven, and particularly the Green Valley intersection, the current grades were mostly Cs.
However, over the next 10 years, Caudle said the traffic will only get worse, and projected those grades to be Ds and Fs by 2027.
“Things will only get worse," he said, "and they will get worse very quickly out on Crosshaven Drive.”
The Green Valley intersection is already part of a Topics VIII project Jefferson County has begun, but with the project mired in right-of-way acquisition, county officials estimated it could be 2020 before work actually begins.
Based on the research, Caudle said Skipper recommends that the entirety of Crosshaven Drive from Cahaba Heights Road to Overton Road be converted to a three-lane thoroughfare, with the center turn lane running the entire distance. Additionally, turn lanes onto Crosshaven would alleviate queues on feeder streets, and a traffic light at Bearden Court would also likely be needed.
To give an idea of what that might look like, Caudle turned the presentation over to Portera, who explained the early-stage designs and engineering Nee-Schaffer has done up to this point.
Alleviating Crosshaven's issues is easily split into three major "chunks," Portera explained: the Topics VIII project, a Northern Phase and a Southern Phase, in that order based on priority.
The Northern Phase would add pavement on the eastern side of the road to accommodate a new lane and would add a better right turn lane onto Crosshaven from Overton. The estimated cost would be about $2.54 million, including sidewalks, attending to drainage issues and other items.
The Southern Phase would also add pavement on the eastern side and would tie in with a dedicated turn lane from Cahaba Heights Road, in addition to including sidewalks. The cost for the Southern Phase would be about $2.08 million.
Portera explained that the phases could be stand-alone or simultaneous based on available funds.

Emily Featherston
Downes explains the process for improvements to the road, and introduces engineers working on the project.
Downes pointed out that much of what is slowing down the Topics VIII project is the reliance on federal funds.
“It makes sense, if funding is available, to do a local project and not seek federal funds to look at the Northern and Southern phase,” he said.
Downes estimated that if the council decided to pursue it as a local project, the Northern Phase could possibly be completed before the Topics VIII project and begin to alleviate some of the worst congestion.
He added, however, that the decision is ultimately up to the city council, and that the funds have to come from somewhere, whether that be from the city's reserves or through some other mechanism.