By Joshua Huff, sports editor
ARGO — Drivers rejoice. The off-road excursion that is Liles Lane, just off Interstate 59 exit 148 in Argo, is finally welcoming the friendly embrace of smooth, new asphalt.
After years of wear and tear, the road into Argo is now in the early stages of being repaved by Jefferson County, following a pre-city council meeting on Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, which led to Senator Jim McClendon, of the 11th District, to work his magic to find a solution to the problem that drivers in Argo have complained about for years.
“I just called John Cooper, who is the director of ALDOT, and is a good guy,” McClendon said. “I said, ‘Hey, John. We’ve got a serious problem here. This town can’t afford to fix this stretch and it’s being used by all these cities and needs some help.’ And he said, ‘OK, I’ll be glad to.'”
Since then, ALDOT has approved funding to resurface Liles Lane. According to ALDOT, the resurfacing will be performed by road crews from the Jefferson County Commission under a cooperative funding agreement with ALDOT. The estimated cost, to be paid by ALDOT to Jefferson County, is $75,000.
“ALDOT is pleased to help with funding to resurface this local roadway,” Tony Harris, ALDOT’s government relations manager and spokesperson, said. “The needs of cities and counties remain a monumental challenge for them to meet. At ALDOT, we are going above and beyond to help where we can. In Argo, we are finding a way to address one of the city’s most pressing needs after discussions in December with city officials, and after talking with their state legislators.”
In the eyes of Argo Mayor Betty Bradley, the fight to fix a road more synonymous with busted rims and blown out tires has been an exhaustive undertaking. Bradley said she applied for numerous grants, and tried to get help from St. Clair County and the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT).
In addition, Bradley said the city has lost money from gas sales after St. Clair County initiated a 4% gas tax in 2015, which she believes sends people to other cities to get cheaper gas. As a result, the money the city receives from the gas tax is but a sliver of the cost needed to maintain the road.
“They expect Argo to keep it up,” Bradley said. “We’re just a small city, and we have mom and pop stores. There’s no way that we can come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair that, and every grant that we’ve applied to we’ve been turned down.”
The repaving work now being done follows the city of Argo applying for an ATRIP-II grant for $522,000 to widen the Interstate 59 northbound exit ramp and acceleration lanes on Argo Parkway. Per ALDOT, 28 projects were selected for funding for a total of $30.13 million. This follows 121 local government submissions requesting approximately $148 million in funding, which is five times the amount available to be allocated.
However, Argo will receive $68,609 under the new distribution formula for road and bridge funding created by the Rebuild Alabama Act, which is a $41,459 increase. Those funds are intended for improvements and ongoing maintenance on city streets.
The repairs to Liles Lane are not meant to be a long term solution, McClendon said. Though, he thinks that there will be additional improvements down the road.
“For right now, we’ve taken off a real burden for the city of Argo,” McClendon said. “And we’ve taken away the burden from the county, as well. The Department of Transportation stepped up and said they’ll fix it.”
The entire project should be completed before the end of February.