Alabama Department of Public Transportation held a public involvement meeting Thursday night to discuss a bridge replacement and roadway realignment project on Alabama State Route 155.

Roughly 15 people attended the meeting.

The purpose of the project is to replace an older bridge structure in order to safely accommodate current and future traffic volumes.

ALDOT Division Engineer Dee Rowe explained that the roadway will be realigned and a new bridge will be constructed to the north of the existing bridge.

“The biggest thing we ran into with this bridge is it is functionally obsolete,” Rowe said. “The bridge was built in the 1920s, so it was during a time when the biggest truck you had crossing the bridge was a bread truck.”

Currently, Rowe said the bridge poses safety concerns to motorists due to a curve in the bridge that can often catch drivers by surprise.

“It is a very narrow bridge, and people can get distracted when they are driving,” Rowe said. “If you aren’t familiar with that road, the curve in the bridge can catch you off guard.”

Although a specific date has not been established for when the project would be completed, Rowe said the project is expected to begin toward the end of 2015.

The project will cost about $4 million with ALDOT acquiring eight parcels of land to complete the project.

The existing bridge will remain in service during construction of the new bridge.

Pavement will be widened at both approaches.

Teresa Collum is among the residents in the area who would be affected by the project, and she attended the meeting Thursday.

Collum said she received a letter indicating her property could be part of the area targeted for the project.

After looking over maps at the meeting Thursday, Collum said she and her husband will likely lose a strip of land at the front of her property.

“I won’t have a front yard,” Collum said about her first reaction.

Collum said she isn’t sure how property owners would be compensated—or even if they will have the option of whether to sell their land.

Collum said she asked officials at the meeting if giving up her land would be optional.

“I got mixed signals,” she said.

Collum said she has received another letter indicating that compensation for property would be addressed in the future, after details of the project have been determined.

Collum said the couple worries about future projects that might claim even more of their land, especially since their home sits so close to the road.

Her husband, Richard, grew up a short walk from their current home. They moved into their house in 2007 and purchased the property in 2008, Collum said.

Though Collum lives on the Montevallo side of the bridge and drives into Shelby County for work, thus not having to drive over the bridge often, she said she does recognize the need for improvements.

“It most definitely needs to be done,” she said. “I just wish there was another way they could work it.”

Rowe said the purpose of the meeting was to inform the public of the project and to solicit views and comments regarding the project.

ALDOT is also accepting oral statements and written comments from the public until Aug. 15 at 5 p.m.

All comments received will be reviewed by ALDOT and the Federal Highway Administration, and will be a part of the public record.

Rowe said if anyone wishes to make a written comment, to submit the comments to L. Dee Rowe, Division Engineer with the Alabama Department of Transportation, P.O. Box 70070, Tuscaloosa, AL 35407.