LEESBURG — When it comes to selling a new industry on locating to the Leesburg Industrial Park, one major roadblock is always the lack of four-lane access to the Interstate highway system.

Late last month, that obstacle moved one major hurdle closer to being overcome.

After two years on the federal budget backburner, officials with the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) recently awarded an $18.4 million contract to Good Hope Construction to complete an eight-mile stretch of “graded and drained” roadbed in northeastern Etowah County that will widen Highway 411 to four lanes between the Appalachian Highway and North Gadsden.

“Since we finished the grade and drain on that section, there simply have not been any federal funds available,” ALDOT 1st Division Engineer Johnny Harris told The Post. “We had a right of way issue on the Gadsden end that held us up for a while, and by the time we got that sorted out the funding constraints forced us to suspend work.”

Harris said recent passage by Congress of a new federal highway bill — after years of stop-gap measures called continuing resolutions which held funding at existing levels — meant the project once again became a priority.

“The passage of the new bill got this project back on track,” he said.

Harris said there won’t be a lot of work to do in order to get the eight-mile stretch ready to pave. However, he said there is a good bit of grading to do at every intersection where the new four-lane will cross an existed street or county road.

“The work on the grade and drain was done to the extent that it could sit there indefinitely,” Harris said. “We always do that because we are often forced to complete projects in multiple phases.”

Harris said the project’s plan for completion calls for 375 working days.
“That’s probably going to be a little over two years, depending on the weather,” Harris said.

State Sen. Phil Williams, who announced the recommencement of the project at a meeting of the Centre Rotary Club on July 30, said the completion of the four-laning of Highway 411 has been a priority since he was elected in November 2010.

“I've been working on this, with several others, since the day I was elected,” Williams told The Post last week. “It was apparent to me that we had a project lying dormant that was having a negative impact on property values around the unfinished roadway.”

Williams stressed the importance of completing the four lane all the way from Leesburg to Gadsden.

“Cherokee County is one of the few counties in the state that does not have four-lane access to an Interstate highway,” he said. “That limits economic development. The industrial park in Leesburg needs this, to advance.”

Williams said he believed one major catalyst in getting the project back on the state’s radar occurred when Gov. Robert Bentley visited Cherokee County in December.

“Usually, when the governor visits, he speaks to the crowd,” Williams said. “In this case, the governor’s visit turned into an event where everyone was speaking to him, and everyone wanted to know when the four-laning of Highway 411 was going to be completed.”

Williams said his next goal is to widen the remaining section of two-laned highway between the Appalachian Highway and Slackland Church, near Leesburg.

“At that point, there will be a four-lane all the way from downtown Centre into Gadsden.”

Harris said ALDOT currently has that section of highway set for completion in Fiscal Year 2017.

“That project will have to compete with many others for limited amounts of funding,” Harris said. “The plan could always change, based on the future funding situation and shifting state priorities.”