A sign posted in Mentone, Alabama warns truckers not to use Tutwiler Gap as an alternate route to get to I-59.

The Alabama Department of Transportation says that it will be sometime in June before Highway 117 going down Lookout Mountain reopens for traffic.  The Georgia Department of Transportation, a the request of the Alabama DOT, has posted electronic signs telling commercial traffic to use Highway 114 as a detour around Mentone, but that hasn’t stopped some big trucks from winding up in Mentone.

Mentone Police are now posting officers to turn trucks around instead of trying to use Tutwiler Gap, which is a switchback road that is impassible for tractor-trailers.

A lot of the confusion is coming from truckers who are using GPS instead of paying attention to the posted detours.  That has led to a lot of commercial traffic on roads in Chattooga County that aren’t normal routes for big trucks.  Back Berryton, Smallen Road, Filter Plant Road, Oak Hill-Alpine Road and Fish Hatchery Road have been seeing commercial traffic because some truck drivers’ GPS is showing them those roads as a route to Fort Payne.

The official detour route for trucks headed for I-59 in  Alabama is Georgia Highway 114, which turns into Alabama Highway 68 in Cherokee County; then Highway 35 West to Fort Payne.