Traffic flows along Alabama 110, also known as Vaughn Road, past the stalled construction of an interchange that was to be part of the Outer Loop. The project, which has been talked about since the early 1990s, may have new life if federal dollars are made available. (Mickey Welsh)
The long-delayed Montgomery Outer Loop projects could be back on.
Advertisement
If federal dollars are made available through congressional earmarks, not federal stimulus money, the Alabama Department of Transportation will bid out the eastern leg of the work as soon as September or October. That work would connect Interstate 85 to Vaughn Road.
That three-mile stretch of work, which includes a costly interchange at I-85, could cost between $100 million to $120 million, according to ALDOT spokesman Tony Harris.
Although the work would only be three miles of the 20-mile Outer Loop, state Rep. Thad McClammy sees the new interest in the project as a significant victory.
"The journey to the Outer Loop begins with the first three miles," McClammy said Wednesday.
Although the funding for those three miles aren't in hand, Harris is optimistic.
"We've been talking to Congress and are hopeful additional federal funding can be made available to allow us to move forward with taking bids late this year," Harris said.
Doing the entire project, which is intended to relieve congestion and promote economic development, would cost between $400 million to $500 million. Harris said the state is prepared to contribute matching money and would likely be required to do so.
But until such federal funding is received, Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange is downplaying the fact a portion of the project is finally being prepared to be bid.
"The fact that we're teeing it up doesn't mean anything," Strange said during a Montgomery Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting on Wednesday.
Part of preparing for this possible funding meant putting two phases of the three-mile project in what is called the local Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), which is intended to be a list of funded projects.
A formality, the change had to be done before the project could advance in the process.
John Lorentson, who is the Sixth Division Engineer for ALDOT, represented the state at the Wednesday MPO meeting. Lorentson said to the group that although the funding is still being sought, the projects should be added to the TIP so that it would be ready for construction this fall.
"We hope to have (the funding) soon, but we don't know," Lorentson said.
Advertisement
The two projects on the MPO's agenda would cost about $27 million to do, but they are only two parts of the six phases needed to build the Outer Loop from I-85 to Vaughn Road, which is in a mostly rural and residential area of the county.
The first phase, which cost $21.8 million, has already been finished, but no work has been done on the Outer Loop in the past few years.
The dormant project was given a lift in January when the Montgomery County Commission announced that it would work with a non-profit called Focus 2000 to study the feasibility of building it as a toll road through a public-private partnership.
Harris would not say whether the public-private partnership sparked new interest on the state or federal level, saying only that ALDOT was committed to building the Outer Loop as it was originally envisioned. Harris said the three-mile segment being readied for construction now would not be built as a toll road.
McClammy, an ardent supporter of the project through the years, most recently demonstrated that support by sending oversized two-foot by three-foot postcards -- with a picture of the abandoned project on one side and signatures of residents on the other -- to elected officials in Montgomery and Washington.
While he is fine with private enterprise picking up the project from Vaughn Road westward, he said the state has a "moral responsibility" to finish the project from I-85 to Vaughn Road.
"These are property owners. These are taxpayers. We acquired this property under the pretense that we were going to do the Outer Loop," McClammy said. "We made those promises. We should keep them.
"(Focus 2000) didn't make those promises. The great state of Alabama made those promises. Those are our promises to keep," McClammy added.
County Commission vice chairman Reed Ingram, who represents the area where the Outer Loop would begin, said undertaking the three-mile segment is positive, but added that the benefits of the Outer Loop would not be realized with this small portion.
"It'll help, but only for local residents. It won't do anything as far as economic development. It'll help people get home a little faster," Ingram said.
"You're really not getting anywhere until you get all the pieces," he added.
Ingram said he believed the state and federal government would fund the project from I-85 to Vaughn Road and that private enterprise would likely pick it up from Vaughn Road and continue it west to Troy Highway.
"I'm cautiously optmistic. You don't know if Focus 2000 is really going to come up with the money or not. You don't know. It really could be a road to nowhere," Ingram said.
To date, $52.9 million has been spent on the Outer Loop. Aside from the first phase of the ongoing six-phase project, that work included tasks such as a corridor study, right of way acquisition and preliminary engineering. As of this year, ALDOT has restarted its effort to acquire rights of way beyond Vaughn Road, according to Harris.
I'll believe it when I see it!
Prev
Linear Mode
