Cahaba Road

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Cahaba Road (formerly Cahaba River Road) is an approximately two-mile long, predominantly north-south road connecting Key Circle on the crest of Red Mountain in Birmingham to Shades Creek Parkway/Mountain Brook Parkway in Mountain Brook. It passes through both English Village and Mountain Brook Village and is the location of the main entrance to the Birmingham Zoo.

Cahaba Road was created before 1900. In 1927, the Jemison Company paved the road, providing smoother and faster access to their Mountain Brook Estates subdivision from Birmingham. For a long time, the part of the road going through English Village was known as 24th Street or 24th Street Road. In the mid-20th Century, prior to the construction of the current U.S. Highway 280, the road was part of the Florida Short Route.

The addresses from 1600 to 1643 Cahaba Road are part of the Red Mountain Suburbs Historic District.

In Mountain Brook Village, Cahaba Road converges with Montevallo and Canterbury Roads as a five-way intersection. However, an access road rings this intersection, setting the Mountain Brook Estates building, which is between Montevallo and Canterbury, back far enough to have some storefronts facing Cahaba.

South of Shades Creek Parkway/Mountain Brook Parkway, south bound traffic can only access the Shades Brook Building. However, there is an exit from U.S. Highway 280 that leads north bound traffic past the Shades Brook Building and on to Cahaba Road.

In 2015 the section of Cahaba Road in Birmingham bordering the Zoo and Birmingham Botanical Gardens was narrowed to two (wider) lanes to make way for sidewalks. The turn lane was replaced with a roundabout at the zoo entrance and a new pedestrian gate for the Botanical Gardens. The changes were planned by landscape architect Nimrod Long to calm traffic, which had a tendency to speed through that section, to make the area safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and to upgrade the landscaping. The project was financed by the City of Birmingham, partly through a federal SAFETEA grant, and contracted through the Alabama Department of Transportation.

Notable locations

For an alphabetical list of locations, see the Cahaba Road category.

References

  • "Shades Valley Six Minutes Nearer City" (November 1927) Jemison Magazine, p. 6
  • Rodriguez, Ana (June 23, 2015) "Birmingham Zoo, Botanical Gardens to unveil Cahaba Road improvements July 1." The Birmingham News
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