Alabama DOT seeks to restart stalled project

06/03/2009

By Dan Carsen

 After completing only 65 percent of the job, a highway contractor has stopped working on a $2.8 million Birmingham-area road project, leaving several unfinished high-traffic miles of Alabama 119 more prone to congestion and accidents.

The Hanceville, Ala., contractor was supposed to widen the highway, which intersects Interstate 65 roughly 10 mi south of Birmingham, in four places to improve traffic flow.

Alabama Department of Transportation spokesman Tony Harris says the firm has been paid for the portion of the work it finished.

“Our concern with every project is that it’s completed in a timely matter,” Harris says, although he would not discuss the specifics of what he described as an ongoing legal process. Every ALDOT project requires contractors to post bonds as insurance that the job will be completed. If a contractor defaults, ALDOT can go to the bonding company and arrange for another contractor to complete the project.

“We’re initiating a process to get the work finished,” Harris says. “We share the concerns of the public.”

Many of those concerns have been voiced by Steve Zerkis, mayor of Indian Springs Village, the town that encompasses the affected stretch of Alabama 119.

“There’s been nothing for six months,” Zerkis says. “There’s no equipment on the site. That all disappeared in the wintertime. It’s a major safety issue.” He estimates that only 25 to 30 percent of the road surface that requires paving has been finished. 

“It wouldn’t be so bad if it was a country road out by a couple dairy farms,” he says, adding that more than 20,000 vehicles travel the road each day. There are now unpaved shoulders lined with orange and white barrels for several miles. There is often no room for drivers to go around stopped vehicles.

Zerkis says any vehicle that leaves the raised, paved surface risks severe tire damage.   

 “I’ve seen high-quality work being done all over Alabama,” he says. “I’m sure there are many firms around the state that could do it. I’d really like to see this get done quickly.”

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