The project at the intersection of U.S. Highway 31 and Alabama Highway 22 will begin April 21.

Clanton Police and Chilton Contractors will begin closing the intersection and implementing detour routes at 12:01 a.m. April 21, so the detour will be in effect for morning commutes on April 21.

Officials ask that travelers plan accordingly.

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

Northbound traffic on Highway 31 will be routed onto Sixth Street South at the Clanton Post Office. The stop sign that sits at the end of Sixth Street, basically in front of the post office, will be removed, creating a free flow for traffic from 31 onto Sixth Street and vice versa.

The 31 detour will have traffic heading up Sixth Street to Second Avenue South and then over to Alabama Highway 145. Traffic would take Ollie Avenue from 145 back to 31.

The opposite of that route would be used for traffic coming down 31 from north of Clanton.

Meanwhile, traffic traveling east into Clanton on Hwy. 22 will be detoured onto Eighth Street South to Jackson Avenue, then over to Sixth Street, Second Avenue and the other detour route.

Large trucks will have to give downtown Clanton an even wider berth. Because of their size and weight, trucks trying to travel west on 22 will have to take 31 north to Jemison, then Hwy. 191 over to rejoin 22 in Maplesville.

Given the detours, the intersections at Jackson Avenue and Sixth Street, and at Hwy. 145 and Ollie Avenue, are likely to become much more congested than usual.

All downtown roads will remain open during the project, other than the intersection. Locals will just have take some creative routes to get where they want to go.