Answer Man: How did Dothan get its ‘Circle City’ nickname?

A: The name originated after motorists began using State Route 210 – known as Ross Clark Circle or “the Circle” to locals – to bypass downtown Dothan.

Many towns have alternate routes when the main route of a highway goes through town, but Dothan was the first in the nation to be encircled by a four-lane divided highway.

Built in 1957 and 1958, the nearly 14-mile beltway was sparsely developed in its early years. But soon offices, restaurants, stores and hotels began to open along the major thoroughfare less than three miles from the center of town.

The route is overlaid by three federal highways – U.S. 84, U.S. 231 and U.S. 431. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but the new bypass usually had a shorter travel time because it had a higher speed limit and few traffic lights.

As property along the route developed, the number of intersections and traffic volume increased. Over the last 35 years, the daily traffic count at U.S. 84 West and Ross Clark Circle went from about 40,000 to more than 80,000.

Upgrades were needed. The first study on Ross Clark Circle was done in 1990, but local opposition to overpasses and other things delayed efforts to make improvements.

Construction finally began in 2015, when the Alabama Department of Transportation began expanding Ross Clark Circle to six lanes from Fortner Street to Bauman Drive.

A project to widen Ross Clark Circle from Bauman to North Cherokee Avenue was split into smaller phases in late 2018 after the sole bid came in at $61.7 million – about $18 million more than state estimates and designated federal funding.

Scheduled improvements and projected upgrades on the beltway should help the “Circle City” namesake fulfill its traffic obligations for years to come.