The triple-roundabout interchange ALDOT built where State Route 160 meets I-65 at Exit 284 - the Hayden/Corner exit - has picked up a regional safety award, and the numbers behind it are the real story.
The Southern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (SASHTO) named the $8.6 million project a regional winner in the Small Project, Safety category of the 2026 America’s Transportation Awards, ALDOT announced August 28 - the department’s first win in the national competition. It’s one of 12 regional winners chosen from nine states in the SASHTO region, and now advances to compete for a national award, with finalists expected in the coming weeks ahead of the November ceremony.
The project rebuilt the interchange with three connected roundabouts after ALDOT crash data showed 56 crashes in three years on that short stretch of SR-160, eight with injuries, including a pattern of wrong-way entries onto the interstate ramps. Since construction wrapped in summer 2025, ALDOT says monthly crashes in the project area are down 50 percent, with zero injury crashes recorded through the end of the year.
Hayden Police Chief James Chapman put it more directly in ALDOT’s own announcement: “There’s no doubt in my mind that without the roundabouts there, we would have already had a fatality at this intersection.”
Sain Associates designed the interchange, Vulcan Materials Asphalt and Construction built it, and Neel-Schaffer consulted on the project.
Source: ALDOT News Hub