City looking to repair part of Alabaster Boulevard

Published 12:48 pm Friday, March 10, 2017

By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The city of Alabaster is making plans to bid a project to repair one of the worst sections of Alabaster Boulevard, and could repair the section in the coming months.

During a March 9 work session, Alabaster City Council members discussed the state of the roadway, which connects the Propst Promenade shopping center with the Weatherly subdivision and Westwood Baptist Church.

In 2014, an engineering study found the road to be in overall “poor” condition, with several sagging and damaged sections. Since the roadway was constructed in 2005, the road base and fill materials under the roadway have caused parts of the roadway to develop humps and “places where the pavement is graveling out,” Alabaster City Engineer Brett Tucker said previously.

“In 2014, we looked at what it would take to totally fix this road, and 11 areas were identified as needing repairs,” Tucker said during the March 9 work session, noting the bids to complete the entire project came back at nearly $750,000, which is much higher than the city had estimated.

In October 2015, the city approved $49,975 in restricted gas tax funds to fund repairs on a sagging portion of the roadway in front of Westwood Baptist Church.

The city is now looking to bid out a project to repair a sagging portion of road between Westwood Baptist and Candlewood Suites, which affects both the north- and southbound lanes. The section is slightly north of Candlewood Suites, where the landscaped center portion of the road ends.

If the city accepts a bid for the project in the next several weeks, construction likely will take place during the summer months when traffic flow is the lightest, said Alabaster Mayor Marty Handlon.