Local officials give update on ‘historic’ ATRIP program

Elected officials from across Franklin County were to quick to praise one another Wednesday.

Members of the Franklin County Commission and representatives from each town’s city council met for a status report on the Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program, which will allow more than $14 million in road repairs to be completed over the next two to three years.

Franklin County will receive $14,811,620, with $11,849,296 in federal money and $2,962,324 of local dollars.

The project list includes work on 25 roads and 10 bridge projects.

Work is complete on first-round projects that include resurfacing, reclamation, striping and shoulders on approximately seven miles of Gravel Hill Road and eight miles of County Road 16. Officials said plans are 85 percent for a bridge replacement and resurfacing project on Franklin 22.

In all, 118 miles of county roads will be repaired thanks to the ATRIP funding.

“At the current level of available revenue, it would take us 30 years to complete all of the projects that we will now be doing over the next 3-4 years,” said county engineer David Palmer.

Palmer said roads and bridges that serve more than 55,000 motorists a day will be impacted.

“We want everyone in Franklin County to understand the profound impact of ATRIP on our area and your ability to get to school and work,” Probate Judge Barry Moore said.

Palmer called the program “historic.”

“These improvements will immediately benefit our citizens and our economy,” he said.

“This program will have an historic and important impact on the people in the state of Alabama,” Palmer said. “We all understand the importance of urban roads and the interstate, but there comes a time when you have to fix the roads getting to the interstate.”