Baldwin County’s long nightmare is over: Alabama State Route 181 will reopen to four lanes of traffic later today.

Officials are urging patience once the final cones are removed reopening all the lanes along an approximately four-mile stretch through one of the fastest-growing areas in Alabama.

Read more: A ‘big pain in the butt’ inching toward completion: Is Route 181 in Baldwin County almost finished?

“We are excited to finally see Highway 181 open,” Fairhope Mayor Sherry Sullivan said Thursday, hours before the Alabama Department of Transportation plans to reopen the entire road to four-lane traffic. “There has been a tremendous amount of development in that area coupled with the growth of our county and Fairhope. I hope drivers will slow down, be patient and understand that sometimes the best thing to do is open the road and then let other opportunities for improvement reveal themselves.”

The $30 million project began around 4-1/2 years ago, and completion was expected later this summer.

James Gordon, spokesman with ALDOT’s Southwest Region, said the project is not “officially complete,” though he confirmed the four lanes will be open to motorists by midday.

“Contractors will continue to work on construction items for the next month or so with periodic lane closures,” Gordon said.

He said that once traffic normalizes, the state will conduct a traffic signal warrant study to determine if any future signals are needed. Intersections that will be analyzed include Austin/Corte Road, Camberwell/Dunmore Drive intersection and St. Michael Way intersections.

Said Sullivan, “I know ALDOT will continue to evaluate Highway 181 and add additional signalization or other safety improvements as they are needed.”

The project was built to accommodate rapid growth within the Eastern Shore area of Baldwin County, which has seen more than 27% growth since 2010.

The highway stretches from Daphne Road and Route 181 in Belforest south to Alabama State Route 104 intersection in Fairhope.

Approximately 16,000 vehicles per day travel along Route 181 just north of the Route 104 intersection, according to an ALDOT count. More traffic is likely to come. A four-lane stretch of Route 181 in Daphne near Champions Way — which leads into Daphne High School — has an average daily traffic count of 26,556.

Ammons & Blackmon Construction LLC is the main contractor for the Route 181 project, and 10 subcontractors have been working on it throughout its construction. The overall project was expected to be completed within 435 working days from its start, according to the Alabama Department of Transportation in February. That timeline was extended an extra 45-days to account for the addition of a culvert, extending the working days to 480.

The project is also expected to spawn economic development along Route 181. In Fairhope, a Publix grocery store was constructed while the road project was underway. The opening of the grocery store is expected sometime this summer.

Versions of the road widening project have been discussed for over 20 years. And even with the four-mile stretch finished, there will be calls for additional work south of Route 104.

Officials in Fairhope, Daphne as well as state lawmakers are clamoring for funding to extend the road widening south past a Walmart Supercenter in Fairhope to Baldwin County 32. In future years, the goal is to extend the road to Route 98.