Council receives industrial access grant

With the anticipated high traffic volume due to the expansion of the IHP facility on Lawrence Street as well as other factors, the Russellville City Council has secured a grant to make road improvements to accommodate the heightened traffic flow in that area.

At Monday night’s meeting, the Russellville City Council voted to authorize Mayor David Grissom to execute the industrial access road project agreement with the state of Alabama.

Councilman David Palmer said this project would provide $977,800 to create three lanes and install a red light at the intersection of Lawrence Street and Alabama 24.

Palmer said the improvements would extend from the intersection to the northwest entrance of the plant on Lawrence Street.

“This was something that was very necessary for this area because we will have a large increase in truck traffic coming in and out of the IHP facility,” Palmer said.

“Plus, we are expecting 245 jobs to come from this expansion, so we will also need to accommodate for that increase in traffic as well.”

Grissom said when the traffic from the new apartment complex on Lawrence Street was taken into consideration, as well as traffic coming from the John G. Blackwell ball park and the two preschool centers on Lawrence Street, the road improvements were more than necessary.

“The safety of our citizens is a top priority, and with so much traffic coming and going on this section of Lawrence Street, we needed to make these improvements to make this area safer as well as more accessible,” Grissom said.

“We are very excited to receive this industrial access road grant. This is a great deal of money and we are glad we will be able to use it to improve our community.”