News
In the News: Roadwork continues in Russellville
Posted on October 23, 2015
Originally published by Times Daily.
Work will continue this week on several heavily traveled city streets, officials said.
Franklin County Highway Engineer David Palmer said crews finished all milling work and are into the paving portion of the project, which is being completed through the Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program (ATRIP).
“So far we’ve finished all the paving on Duncan Creek Road from Harrison Avenue to the city limits,” he said. “All we have left there is the shoulder work and the permanent striping.
“This should be the case for the west end of Lawrence Street as well by the end of the day Tuesday. We should have that portion from Alabama 24 West to Dillard Hollow Road paved and all we’ll lack is the shoulder work and permanent striping.”
Palmer said the portion of Lawrence Street from Dillard Hollow Road through town to U.S. 43 would be put on hold while crews use the remainder of the week to finish the paving on either end of Jackson Avenue from Cotaco Street to U.S. 43 and from Tuscaloosa Street to U.S. 43.
“We needed to go ahead and get Jackson done because that milling work will start to break down if we wait too long,” he said Tuesday. “We have some leveling work we’ll have to do on Jackson on Wednesday and then we’ll move on to the main line paving.”
Palmer said there would be some traffic delays, but traffic wouldn’t have to be completely rerouted while the work is taking place.
“Motorists can still drive down Jackson while this work is going on, but they will need to plan for some delays,” he said. “We’ll just have one lane open so they may have to sit for a little while to wait on the pilot car to lead them down the one lane.”
Palmer said he expected the paving to be completed on Jackson by Friday.
“If there’s anything left after Friday, it will just be minimal ,and we’ll be able to finish it up Monday morning if necessary,” he said.
On Monday crews will go back to Lawrence Street and finish the paving back out to U.S. 43.
Russellville Mayor David Grissom said the roadwork has been inconvenient since it’s taking place on heavily used city streets, but it would be worth it in the end.
“I appreciate our residents being patient,” he said. “I’m sure just about everyone has had to drive on the roads that are under construction, and I know it isn’t pleasant to drive on these milled streets, but they are all going to be so much better than they were once they are completed.
“The portion of Duncan Creek Road they’ve finished with and the recent work they completed on Waterloo all looks great and drives a lot easier than it did.”
Palmer said he estimated it would be another 3-4 weeks before they were 100 percent done with all the ATRIP projects.
“We are going to make sure we are completely done with all of our ATRIP projects before we move on to anything else,” he said. “We have a few non-ATRIP projects on tap that are close to some of these existing projects, but we won’t be starting on those until we are finished with ATRIP. Once we’re done, we will start on the non-ATRIP projects and see how much we can get done as long as the weather holds out.”
The one exception, he said, would be the industrial access project on Lawrence Street East from U.S. 43 to Alabama 24 East, which passes in front of the International Hearth Products (IHP) facility.
“This is a completely separate project that is being funded through an industrial access grant,” Palmer said. “Midsouth Paving will be the ones completing this project while Rogers Group finishes up the ATRIP project.”
He said the industrial access paving should start next week.