When will McWright's Ferry Road project finish? What the mayor said

Despite being Tuscaloosa's second-largest ever road construction project, the $68.9 million McWright's Ferry Road extension remains on track to be complete by this fall, according to Mayor Walt Maddox.

Maddox said in his weekly Mayor's Minute of "a light at the end of the tunnel" for the two and a half-year project, with the final lanes of Rice Mine Road and Paul W. Bryant Bridge due to be paved this month. Once that's complete, all lanes at that intersection will be opened. Though traffic has been routed through, until recently construction has kept the bridge narrowed to one lane traveling each way.

Stretches of mostly non-rainy weather have played in the project's favor.

The need for the extension has been known and debated since at least 1979, as the population north of the Black Warrior River, surrounding and near Lake Tuscaloosa, has expanded vastly. More than 11,000 Tuscaloosa County residents live there. Between 5,000 and 7,000 vehicles travel to and from there daily, and that figure is expected to more than double, to 16,500 per day, by 2035. And housing construction is ongoing, with several hundred new developments in progress.

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The expanded roadways will not only cut down on traffic congestion but provide greater safety and access for first-responders in times of emergency.

When complete, McWright's Ferry Road will connect to the bypass on the north side of the Bryant Bridge, which spans the Black Warrior River, connecting Jack Warner Parkway to Rice Mine Road NE. The sweeping curve where McWright's Ferry Road meets New Watermelon Road is being turned into a four-way intersection.

The work also includes installation of an 18-inch sewer line, intended to serve for 150 years, a pedestrian bridge over North River, and a shared-use path which will ultimately connect to the Northern Riverwalk. More than a million yards of dirt is being removed from the work sites, by Dominion and GFC construction companies.

Work began in February 2023, and a ceremonial groundbreaking was held that July, for the extensive District 3 work. That and other projects are overseen by the Tuscaloosa County Road Improvement Commission, (TCRIC), created in 2015 after passage of House Bill 600, the Transforming Tuscaloosa County bill, which made permanent a decades-long previously temporary 3-cent sales tax.

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A portion of that funds TCRIC projects, also including the Jack Warner Parkway/Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard connector, at $73 million the city's largest, as well as work on McFarland Boulevard, Bear Creek Cutoff Road, and state route 69, north and south. The Jack Warner/MLK project has completed phase 1, which included expansion and improvement on those boulevards and Stillman Boulevard to just north of Fifth Street, and Nick's Kid's Avenue to Greensboro Avenue. Phase 2, on Jack Warner from 21st Avenue to Greensboro Avenue, is largely complete. Phase 3 is awaiting railroad permits.

In Maddox's minute, he added "I’m also thankful for your patience, because I know that living through this work has not been easy. When this project is complete, it will prepare Tuscaloosa for decades of growth ― making a positive impact for generations to come."

Updates are available through TCRIC at www.tcric.org/projects/mcwrights-ferry-road, or by texting MCWRIGHT to 888777.

Reach Mark Hughes Cobb [email protected].