Crews repairing a damaged span of Interstate 65 near Mobile are running well ahead of schedule, according to state transportation officials, with the bridge now expected to reopen days earlier than originally planned.
The bridge, known locally by its nickname referencing its distinctive twin-arch design, had been down to a single open lane for nearly two weeks after a serious traffic accident in late May left a man dead and damaged the structure. Alabama Department of Transportation officials announced that after 12 days of repair work, the bridge should be fully complete and reopened on or before July 5, well ahead of a previously announced July 15 target.
A department spokesperson credited around-the-clock work by the repair contractor, along with unusually cooperative weather, for helping push the timeline up by 10 days. The final concrete pour on the structure was scheduled for the evening the announcement was made, with plans to reopen the roadway as soon as the concrete reached the necessary strength to safely carry traffic.
Once repairs are finished, both lanes of the bridge’s southbound side will reopen after crews remove a temporary traffic control barrier that has been separating work zones from moving traffic throughout the project.
The contractor was awarded the repair job for roughly $2.3 million in mid-June, under a 25-day contract that began June 21. The agreement includes a built-in incentive: for every day the contractor finishes ahead of the deadline, it earns an additional $50,000, an amount state officials say reflects the calculated cost to drivers of having the bridge only partially open. If the work is completed by July 5, as now expected, the contractor could earn as much as $500,000 in bonus payments.
The bridge is a critical connector for traffic flowing along the Interstate 65 corridor in and out of the Mobile area, and the accelerated repair timeline is expected to ease traffic bottlenecks heading into the busy summer travel season, particularly around the Fourth of July holiday when regional traffic volumes typically spike.