Local leaders across Baldwin County’s Eastern Shore are pressing the Alabama Department of Transportation to help pay for a modern traffic signal system designed to move cars more efficiently through some of the region’s most congested corridors.
The Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization’s policy committee, made up of mayors, city council members and Baldwin County commissioners, voted unanimously to back a consulting report recommending “adaptive traffic signal” technology at dozens of intersections in Daphne, Spanish Fort and Fairhope. Instead of running on fixed timers, the new signals would adjust in real time based on actual traffic volume and would be linked together over a fiber optic network.
The first phase of the plan targets 41 intersections considered among the busiest in the county: 19 along U.S. 98 in the Daphne and Spanish Fort area, 12 on Alabama 181 in those same cities, and 10 more along U.S. 98 in Fairhope. Engineers estimate the total cost at roughly $3.6 million, and local officials want the state to cover half.
“This is about as good of a bang as you can get for your buck,” Baldwin County Commissioner Chris Elliott said, pointing out that similar technology is already used in Gulf Shores and along heavily traveled stretches of road in the Birmingham area. “We’ve pulled it along this far and we got it here. If this is not way high up on their funding list, we have a big problem.”
A second phase would extend the upgrades to nine more intersections along Alabama 181 in unincorporated parts of the county near Fairhope, but that piece of the project is on hold because no fiber optic network currently reaches that stretch of road.
State transportation officials said the request would be reviewed alongside other Baldwin County transportation priorities, with a decision expected by early March. Even if the state agrees to help fund the work, planners estimated it could take up to six months just to design the system, plus additional time to test the software before it could go live — meaning drivers likely would not see the new signals in operation until sometime the following year at the earliest.
Any new signal system would also need buy-in from every community inside the planning organization’s boundaries, which include Baldwin County government along with Daphne, Fairhope, Spanish Fort and Loxley. Robertsdale and Foley fall outside that planning area and would not be part of the initial rollout.
Eastern Shore officials have said easing congestion along U.S. 98 and Alabama 181 is one of their top transportation priorities as the area continues to grow, with commuters and shoppers increasingly funneling through the same handful of intersections connecting Daphne, Spanish Fort and Fairhope.