After years of talk of difficulty navigating through River Falls during Spring Break, the Alabama Department of Transportation is set to make an adjustment that will help alleviate some of the traffic problems.

ALDOT’s William Wofford said Tuesday that they have a configuration change that they believe will alleviate the long lines on Hwy. 55 waiting to turn onto US Hwy. 84 toward Andalusia and enhance safety of for the intersection.

“It involves some lane separation for through lanes for 84 East and West bound,” he said. “We have the material and just need to get the labor lined up for the job.”

Wofford said that it’s not urgent right now because the main problem is with beach traffic, but they plan to have it done before March when traffic starts to pick-up.

In July, the town council and then-police chief Greg Jackson said the mammoth problem for the town of 526, which sits at the juncture of the two major thoroughfares.

The traffic was so bad that travelers were using Guy Avenue, which is a dirt road off of Hwy. 55 as a cut-through road.

Council members and others reported that at times during the peak travel season that traffic is backed up to Pierce Trucking on Hwy. 55, up to 100 cars back.

Another traffic is issue at the intersection that has been discussed is that people will turn right from Hwy. 55 onto Hwy. 84 and doing U-turns back into the beach traffic lane.

“We think the new configuration will solve the problem of the U-turns from off of 55 to circumvent the left turn onto 84,” Wofford said.

Police Chief Cody Warren said he is hopeful the new configuration will help.

“I am hopeful it will make traveling the intersection much safer and be a benefit to the people of River Falls and travelers passing through,” he said.

River Falls Mayor Patricia Gunter said that she wasn’t aware of the start date.

“I’m anxious to get it in place,” she said. “Traffic flow there is tremendous, especially on holiday weekends. So, it is much-needed and hopefully locals will transition into it smoothly.”