The conversion of U.S. Highway 43 and Alabama Highway 69 to four lanes between Thomasville and Tuscaloosa is moving forward, and the next phase carries a direct consequence for Clarke County drivers: a two- to three-month closure of the north end of Old Highway 43 at its intersection with U.S. 43 north of Thomasville.
The closure is being made so the Alabama Department of Transportation and its contractors can construct a new intersection as part of the West Alabama Highway project, according to ALDOT and Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day.
Who Is Affected
The closure will affect residents who live on Old 43 between Bashi Road and U.S. 43, along with motorists who use the road to reach U.S. 43 north of the Alabama Highway 5 intersection at O’Bryant Chapel Funeral Home.
Once work begins, Old Highway 43 will dead-end at the intersection until the tie-in to the new West Alabama Highway is finished.
“Once the work begins, Old Highway 43 will become a dead end until the work to reconnect the street to U.S. 43 is complete,” Day said.
The Detour
All residents who live on Old 43 must use Bashi Road as their primary entrance and exit until the work is completed, Day said.
Motorists traveling from Bashi Road who normally use Old Highway 43 to access U.S. 43 will also need a detour. Day said those drivers should take the route to the traffic light at Walgreens, where they can turn left to access northbound U.S. 43.
Day emphasized that through traffic is not being interrupted. All north and south traffic on the existing two-lane U.S. 43 in the area will continue while the work is being done — the closure applies to the side road connection, not the highway itself.
How Long, and Why the Range
The closure is expected to last approximately two to three months, depending on weather conditions. That range is standard for intersection reconstruction in southwest Alabama, where sustained rainfall can suspend grading, base work and paving for days at a time.
Intersection tie-ins are among the more weather-sensitive elements of a highway project because the sequence — excavation, subgrade preparation, base course, paving, striping — has to proceed in order, and several of those steps cannot be performed on saturated ground.
The Larger Project
The West Alabama Highway project will expand the existing U.S. 43 from two lanes to four, with improvements running between Thomasville and a point just north of Linden. From there the route follows Alabama Highway 69 north through Greensboro and Moundville. Just north of Moundville, it connects with the existing four-lane Alabama Highway 69 leading into Tuscaloosa.
The total construction length is roughly 75 miles.
Gov. Kay Ivey announced the project in 2021, framing it as an economic development catalyst for the Black Belt counties of west Alabama and as relief for congestion on Interstate 65. The cost is estimated at $1 billion.
Bypasses Along the Route
The route includes several bypasses. The bypass around Linden is now open. Work on bypasses in Dixons Mills and Gallion is progressing, and bypasses are also planned for Greensboro and Moundville in Hale County.
Bypasses are a defining feature of the corridor’s design. Routing through traffic around small downtowns rather than through them is what allows a four-lane facility to maintain highway speeds across a long rural corridor, and it is also what makes the project a genuine alternative to I-65 for freight rather than simply a wider version of the road that exists today.
Why the Corridor Matters to Clarke County
For Thomasville and the surrounding area, the project’s significance is less about travel time to Tuscaloosa than about freight access. A four-lane connection north links Clarke County’s industrial base — heavily weighted toward timber and wood products — to markets and interstate connections that a two-lane road serves poorly.
The Black Belt counties the corridor crosses have long been among the state’s most economically constrained, and the stated rationale for the $1 billion investment has consistently been that inadequate highway access is a limiting factor for industrial recruitment in that region.
That is the context for the current inconvenience: a road that has served as a local connector for decades is being reconfigured to tie into a corridor built for a different purpose.
What Drivers Should Do
Residents along Old Highway 43 between Bashi Road and U.S. 43 should plan on Bashi Road as their sole route in and out for the duration of the closure. Drivers accustomed to using Old 43 as a shortcut to northbound U.S. 43 should plan on the Walgreens traffic light instead.
ALDOT has not published a firm reopening date, and the two- to three-month estimate remains weather-dependent. South Alabama News will report updates as the department announces them.