By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The Southeastern Sealcoating company has finalized repairs on a portion of Alabaster Boulevard after allowing the original repairs to settle over the past couple of months.

Crews with the company closed the roadway for a day on Sept. 29 to mill the roadway to level it off, and install the final sealcoat on the asphalt.

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

In late July, the council approved a change order, through which the city agreed to pay Southeastern Sealcoating an additional $25,705. The additional expense allowed the company to add further improvements to the section of roadway to keep rain water from pooling in the travel lanes.

Although the roadway was reopened to traffic on July 26, the final portion of the repairs was not made until late September.

Alabaster Boulevard connects the Propst Promenade shopping center with the Weatherly and Ballantrae neighborhoods. The recently repaired section is slightly north of Candlewood Suites, where the landscaped center portion of the road ends.

Alabaster City Manager Brian Binzer previously said the few months between opening the roadway and making the final repairs gave the roadway time to settle before the project was finalized.

In 2014, an engineering study found Alabaster Boulevard 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.