By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Drivers on a road connecting the Weatherly subdivision with the Propst Promenade shopping center in Alabaster soon will have a smoother ride, after the City Council recently approved a bid to repave a portion of the road.

During its April 24 meeting, council members voted unanimously to award a $104,895 bid from the Southeastern Sealcoating company to repave a portion of the roadway. Southeastern Sealcoating was the sole bidder on the project, which was advertised in March, and the funding for the bid will come from the city’s capital projects fund.

Through the project, the company will repair a sagging portion of Alabaster Boulevard 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.

The repaving will take place during the summer months when traffic typically is the lightest on the road, said Alabaster Mayor Marty Handlon.

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.

The 2014 engineering study identified 11 areas in need of repairs, and the original bids to repair the entire roadway at once came in at about $750,000, which was significantly higher than the city had estimated.