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The Chambers County Commission received an update on the Rebuild Alabama transportation plan during the county commission meeting. Chambers County Engineer Josh Harvill also requested to amend the fiscal year 2024 for the project, and the commission approved the amendments. 

The Rebuild Alabama Act Annual Grant Program, a transportation infrastructure grant program, funds projects of local interest through ALDOT. The AAR program requires that counties submit an annual report for public record at the first meeting of the year. 

“The Rebuild Alabama Act is a really good thing. It combines all this information to where we report it in a very organized manner,” Harvill said during the meeting. 

Harvill added that the report brings to the public’s attention how important the road projects are and how the funds don’t go very far. 

For fiscal year 2023, the county completed Hopewell Road with $407,341.96 of Rebuild funds, County Road 268 with $440,000 of Rebuild funds and County Road 241 with $105,000 of Rebuild funds. 

County Road 48 and County Road 267 projects were planned for fiscal year 2023 but they were not completed. On County Road 48, the county expended $214,897.68 so far. 

Harvill said these expenses only include the AAR grant funds and don’t include other expenses incurred during the completion of projects.

Those two projects that were planned for fiscal year 2023 had delays so they will need to be finished at the beginning of 2024. 

County Road 48 from the LaFayette city limits to County Road 28 was a resurfacing project. County Road 267 from Fredonia Highway to U.S. 431 didn’t begin in 2023 but is now underway. CR 48 only needs striping to be completed while CR 267 is currently undergoing paving. Harvill said he anticipates the project being completed in the next month. 

Harvill also requested to add Phillips Road to the Rebuild Alabama plan for 2024. In the fall of 2023, the county was awarded a grant to fund the resurfacing of the road. The highway department completed resurfacing up to Highway 50.

“[The Phillips Road Project] is a really good thing that we got through the grant which is also funded through the Rebuild Alabama Act,” Harvill said during the meeting. “And the other two were just issues where we weren’t able to complete those projects in the prior year.”

With the three added projects the new plan reflects 19.66 miles of road projects as funded by Rebuild Alabama funds for the fiscal year 2024. The total rebuild funding is $3,710,067.30, according to Harvill.

The Chambers County transportation plan is available to the public on the Chambers County website and the Alabama Association of County Commissioners website, according to Harvill.