Community
Highway 63 project will benefit Crossroads, residents and travelers

Perhaps you’ve noticed the land clearing, excavation and heavy equipment along Highway 63 at Russell Crossroads and asked “What the heck are they doing?” Well, the answer is, “a lot.” The Alabama Department of Transportation has been planning the highway relocation for years. With the emergence of Russell Crossroads, Russell Lands joined the effort.

The curves in Highway 63 between Windermere and O.Z. Hall Roads have been a source of safety concerns for some time. Limited visibility, due to the trees and the tight curves, was viewed as a hazard.

Speaking about the improvements, Chad Calhoun, construction manager for Russell Lands, said, “This change is going to straighten the curves somewhat, improve visibility, add turn lanes and make the intersection at Crossroads much safer. It will also allow us to execute our final entrance design for the town.”

If you take a close look at the path that’s been cleared, it’s easy to tell the new, gentler sweep the roadway will take. But there is a lot more happening than may meet the eye. To move the highway, extensive utility work is necessary, including relocating power and telephone lines, as well as a relocation of the water mains supplying residents of Windermere, Windermere West, Windover, The Ridge, dozens of lakeside cabins and many private residences. This project created the opportunity to upgrade those water supply lines to provide better service and capacity for the neighborhoods of Russell Lands On Lake Martin and allow for future growth.

At Russell Crossroads, the highway and the Crossroads entrance will be moving to the east, and the roadway is being lowered some 10 to 12 feet. This will make entering and exiting Crossroads much flatter, and also opens up additional space for commercial structures in the town center, as future plans may dictate.

But there’s one thing you might not expect — a tunnel. A tunnel under Highway 63 is planned just north of the entrance to Crossroads to allow non-vehicular traffic to enter the village from the east without crossing the highway. The tunnel will connect Crossroads to the miles of equestrian, hiking and electric vehicle trails east of 63 that are part of the Russell Forest Trails system, and subsequently will connect the communities mentioned above with their residents’ chosen destinations in the town center.

The entrance to Crossroads may see completion sometime this summer, while the entire effort  from south of Windermere Road to O.Z. Hall Road is slated to be finished in the fall of this year. Naturally, there will be some disturbance of traffic during this time, but Russell Lands is working with the state and its contractors to minimize disruption through this busy season at Lake Martin. Said Calhoun, “We know this is the busy season, and people come here to enjoy the lake and Russell Crossroads. We’ll do our best to make sure they can still do that without a lot of hassle.”