MOBILE, Alabama — Road crews now have a firm start date for rebuilding the Interstate 10 exit ramp leading to the Battleship Parkway causeway, closed since a tanker crash badly damaged the structure in late July.
A start date, finally
A spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Transportation confirmed that a Montgomery-based contractor is scheduled to begin work on the ramp on Monday, Sept. 22, with the roughly $718,000 project expected to take a couple of months to complete. The ramp has sat closed since a tanker driver lost control and struck the guardrail on July 31, an accident the driver escaped only by kicking out a window of the overturned truck.
Sinkhole shuts down road near cruise terminal
Closer to downtown, Mobile city engineers are investigating a sinkhole that opened up over the weekend on Eslava Street near the Alabama Cruise Terminal, forcing a closure of that stretch of road while crews determine the cause and scope of the damage.
Elsewhere in the city, Satchel Paige Drive between Government Street and Bolling Brothers Boulevard is closed for about three months while crews widen it to a four-lane divided road, part of infrastructure work tied to construction of the McGowin Park shopping center. Royal Street between Conti and Dauphin streets also remains closed due to ongoing safety concerns, and the Three Notch Road roundabout project at Dawes Lane is still underway and expected to last about two months in total.
State highway work continues across both counties
On the state highway side, resurfacing and safety widening on State Route 163 continues on a 35-working-day schedule, while resurfacing and bridge work on I-10 between Halls Mill Creek and the George C. Wallace Tunnel is ongoing, with crews retrofitting guardrails near the DIP ramps and drivers facing mostly nighttime lane closures through next summer. Interstate 65 work near Saraland is about 99 percent finished, and resurfacing on U.S. 90 between Halls Mill and Pine Hill Drive should wrap up by December.
In Baldwin County, the connector between County Road 68 and the Baldwin Beach Express is more than 90 percent complete, resurfacing on Alabama 181 is expected to finish by October, and the Little Lagoon Pass bridge replacement remains roughly halfway done, with a temporary detour bridge in place through the end of the year.