By Marla Jones, Reporter • marla@southerntorch.com (Photo by Marla Jones)

RAINSVILLE, Ala. — According to the Alabama Department of Transportation, motorists should be advised that work will begin this week to replace the one-lane bridge over Town Creek on Chavies Road in Rainsville with a two-lane bridge. Miller and Miller will be the contractors in charge of the project.

The contractors have installed signs for the roadwork and the road will be shut down near the bridge. All through traffic will be detoured to Fortner Road to Old Highway 35 to Alabama 35 back to Chavies Road. The detour will be in place for one year while the old bridge is demolished and the new bridge is being built.

According to Rainsville Councilmember Ricky Byrum, he has received several positive comments from bus drivers that have been forced to go around this bridge for years. He went on to state that this is an ALDOT project that should be completed within 180 workdays, which totals to around 10-11 months.

Byrum stated, “The key benefit to the completion of this project is the availability of emergency services to the citizens in that area, especially when seconds count.”

It’s expected that by early 2019, the last of the ATRIP projects will have been let to bid. When the program wraps up, it will have provided $1 billion toward more than 1,000 local projects, including 379 bridge replacement projects, across Alabama’s 67 counties.

The near $2 million project is funded through the Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program, which provides 80 perfect of funding for eligible costs on local projects applied for by local sponsors such as cities or counties.