Motorists maneuvering through downtown Clanton Tuesday were greeted with detour signs as the project to widen the intersection of U.S. Highway 31 and Alabama Highway 22 began.

“It has gone better than I thought,” Clanton Police Chief Brian Stilwell said. “As far as traffic goes, it has actually been pretty light today. We haven’t really had any major issues.”

Stilwell said one of the main concerns was larger trucks not following the detour signs.

“The area of Highway 31 between Ollie Avenue and Fifth Avenue was a large area of concern,” Stilwell said. “The trucks that are not following the route are causing some issues. If a truck is making a delivery, that is completely acceptable, but if you are a truck that just doesn’t want to go through the detour, that is a problem. Our streets weren’t made for large trucks to come through like that, so we are really going to have to enforce that.”

Clanton Police and Chilton Contractors began closing the intersection and implementing detour routes at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

During the work, which is expected to last 140 days, traffic traveling on Highway 31 will be detoured to avoid most of downtown Clanton.

Stilwell said one change to the detours made on Tuesday was removing the barricade between Jackson Avenue and Sixth Street, allowing motorists to travel south and continue south all the way to the interstate.

“We found that when we opened that area up today, that really seemed to help,” Stilwell said.

While many motorists attempted to find new routes throughout town, Boyd’s Place Owner Angie Sanderson was thankful for the additional traffic in front of her store located on Sixth Street.

“When we first found out this was going to happen, we really started to pray that this would not negatively impact the businesses in town,” Sanderson said. “So far for us, it has been great, and we are really thankful for the extra traffic.”

Sanderson said several customers stopped by her business today that normally do not shop at her store.

“We have had more people stop in today who commented they didn’t even know we were here, so it has really been a good thing,” Sanderson said. “We definitely saw an increase in traffic today with lots of cars driving in front of our store.”

With the widening project expected to last for a few months, Sanderson said her business will continue offering special discounts each week to encourage people to stop by.

“We offer specials on different items each week, and people can find out about them on our Facebook page or just by stopping in,” Sanderson said. “We welcome anyone to come by. We just hope everything works out smoothly.”

Business at Smokey T’s Bar-B-Que in Clanton was quieter than usual, but employees said it was largely due to confusion from motorists as to how to get to the business.

“People still aren’t sure how to get to us,” Michael Rhodes said. “They can still access our business, but I think a lot of people don’t know that yet.”

Motorists can still access Smokey T’s, located at 404 Seventh St. N., by driving south on Highway 31 and following the detour routes from north on Highway 31.

Roughly five signs were placed at various locations in Clanton informing motorists that the business was still open throughout the delays.

“With our location being right in front of where the project is happening I think a lot of people are unsure if they can get to us, but we wanted to make sure they knew that we are still open,” Rhodes said. “It may take a few days for people to get used to everything, but people will find a way.”

Heather Lenoir, who also works at Smokey T’s, said the typical lunch rush was calmer than normal and several to-go orders were never picked up, but many of the construction workers working on the widening project ate lunch at the restaurant.

“We were happy to have them come and eat here,” Lenoir said. “It was a little quiet today, but we are happy to keep feeding anyone who wants to come by.”

Rhodes said the business is also offering delivery for large orders of more than 10.

“We know this will be temporary and in the end everything will be OK, but we are just taking things each day right now.”

Stilwell encourages motorists to follow the detour signs, comply with police, leave a little earlier and be patient.

“We all have to deal with this,” Stilwell said. “We are going to just try to help people through town the best way we can.”