Photo by Savannah Schmidt
Traffic on U.S. 280 comes to a stop below the Pumphouse Road bridge. All lanes of the federal highway will shut down for six hours overnight for three nights, Nov. 14-17, and the eastbound lanes will remain closed all weekend.
The Alabama Department of Transportation will be closing all lanes of U.S. 280 overnight for six hours this Friday, Saturday and Sunday night to begin setting girders for a new bridge over the highway at Pumphouse Road.
The road closure will begin at 11 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 14, with all lanes of the much-traveled federal highway being closed until 5 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 15. The same closing schedule will take place from 11 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, to 5 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, and from 11 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, to 5 a.m. Monday, Nov. 17.
However, all the eastbound lanes on U.S. 280 will remain closed for the entire weekend, beginning 11 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14 and reopening by 5 a.m. Monday, Nov. 17, ALDOT said.
The current Pumphouse Road bridge, its eastbound off-ramp and westbound on-ramp will remain open during this work.
The U.S. 280 closure is necessary for work crews to safely install 100-foot beams across the width of the highway, ALDOT said.
Major delays are expected, and ALDOT encourages travelers to begin planning alternate routes. The main detour recommended by ALDOT is for eastbound motorists to turn off U.S. 289 at Lakeshore Parkway, take I-65 South and Interstate 459 North back to U.S. 280. The reverse route is recommended for westbound traffic.
Map courtesy of ALDOT
This map shows the Alabama Department of Transportation's recommended detour for U.S. 280 traffic to get around lanes being closed at the Pumphouse Road bridge. ALDOT recommends through traffic to use Lakeshore Parkway, Interstate 65 and Interstate 459 to get around the work.
Following this weekend’s night-time girder installation, most of the Pumphouse Road bridge replacement work will take place during the day as promised, ALDOT officials said. There will be additional weekend road closures to complete the phased bridge construction in the future.
“ALDOT wants to thank the public for their patience during this widening project, which will greatly increase U.S. 280 capacity when complete in fall 2026,” the agency said. “Our mission is to provide a safe, efficient, environmentally sound transportation network across Alabama.”
For more information, visit the ALDOT news hub.
