Crews have been busy this past week making road repairs on Jackson Avenue in downtown Russellville in anticipation of a repaving project that city officials said will start soon.
Over the past several months, crews have been working to repair the city’s storm drainage system in the downtown area.
In the fall of 2012, city officials noticed the roadway had several places that appeared to be sunken in, and after further investigation, they discovered the cause was from the deteriorating storm drains that run underneath Jackson Avenue parallel to many of the streets downtown.
Russellville Mayor David Grissom said the city had applied for and received Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program (ATRIP) funds to complete a resurfacing project on Jackson Avenue from Tuscaloosa Street to Cotaco Street and the repairs to the storm drainage system needed to be made before the ATRIP project could begin.
“It wouldn’t have made sense for us to do the repaving project and then go right back behind that and tear it up to fix the deteriorating storm drains,” Grissom said.
“These repairs had to be made first so that’s what we’ve been trying to work on the past few months.”
Grissom said crews have been pumping concrete into the sections of Jackson Avenue where the sinking was most noticeable at the intersection by Russellville City Hall and Grissom Cleaners and at the intersection of Cotaco Street near Five Star Pizza.
“We’ve gotten the concrete pumped in and this week we were working on repairing the sunk in places on the road way and getting it more level by City Hall,” Grissom said.
“Right now it has just been filled in and the street department will be keeping a close eye on it and making necessary repairs and adjustments until the repaving project is started.”
Grissom said the notice to proceed had already been granted to the company working on the ATRIP repaving project.
“We don’t know for sure when the repaving will take place but we know it will be soon,” Grissom said.
“This will be a great thing for downtown Russellville once we get all the roadwork completed.”
Grissom said anyone who plans to be driving in downtown Russellville while the roadwork is being completed should use extra caution and drive slowly to avoid any accidents.
“This may be inconvenient for a while but it will be worth it in the end to have nicer roads to drive on,” he said.