Numerous ideas in the past were launched and didn't work, but now the state is implementing an access management plan that will start north of John D. Odom Road on Highway 231 and go down and around the western side of the circle.

"Its functionality, I think the problem we have is on some of the statistics they gave is, the average speed on Highway 231 is 11 miles an hour," says Houston County Commission Chairman, Mark Culver.

It's quite a drop when the speed limit is between 40 and 65 miles per hour.

Rush hour traffic on highway 231 can be time consuming because of all the stops, the traffic, and the cut-throughs.

ALDOT's access management plan will eventually create 6 lanes on the portion of highway 231 from the Dothan Pavilion down to Westgate.

The plan will also limit the distance between some of the stop lights.

"What this does, is it gives a more efficient job of controlling the access to the road, and it gets people moving more and it ups the average mile per hour speed to 20s which is not a lot, but it’s twice the current speed," says Culver.

As the Pavilion expands, more Wiregrass residents are taking a trip to Houston County for dinner, shopping and soon enough- to catch a flick at the new movie theater. Most of those traveling to the Pavilion would agree that traffic is frustrating.

"I notice in the daytime in the morning, it’s so bad, its hard to get out, its hard to get to work on time because the traffic is heavy, but I believe this will be a big help for Dothan." says Paulette Williams, Dothan Resident who frequents the Pavilion.

And after phase one is complete, phase 2 will kick in along the circle down to Bauman drive. All these changes sound great, but it will get worse before it can get better.

"Unfortunately in order to do the work that you need to, you can't have traffic move through the same rate that it normally does, so there will be some inconvenience for a while, but hopefully, long term it will be much more beneficial." Says Culver

Since Highway 231 and the circle are both state and federal highways, 100 percent of the project's cost will be paid by state and federal funding.

There was a public forum last Thursday night where business and property owners gave their support.

The project could bid in December, meaning we could have construction within 4 or 5 months.

On next Monday’s County Commission meeting, the Commission will vote to adopt a resolution in support of this project.