SPANISH FORT – While work is not yet complete to widen U.S. 31 in Spanish Fort, city officials are making plans to start beautification efforts as soon as road construction is finished.
The Spanish Fort City Council is scheduled to vote Monday, Nov. 15, on a proposal to hire engineers to prepare medians and rights of way along the highway for lights and landscaping. The resolution calls for the city to hire the engineering firm of Michael Baker International to design landscaping, irrigation systems and electrical power systems on highway.
The company will be paid $18,876 according to the resolution.
Mayor Mike McMillan said the Alabama Department of Transportation plans to complete the widening project by the end of December. He said city officials have been waiting for the work to be done to start preparing additional improvements.
“This is a continuing project for beautification on 31 as, and when, they finally complete 31,” McMillan said. “This will give us the opportunity to put irrigation and power to the medians, to certainly irrigate and light up those medians with lights and those kinds of things as we move forward. It’s a big undertaking, Highway 31, a lot of moving parts, a lot of things still coming.”
The improvements will make a major change in the appearance of downtown Spanish Fort, the mayor said.
“That boulevard effect that will be in front of us and running through the city is really going to be outstanding and well-lit,” he said.
He said the lighting will be similar to improvements already in place near City Hall.
“The lighting, which you see part of out here, will go basically from the school road all the way out to Wakefield on both sides of the highway,” McMillan said. “It was decided during the project that we would wait to put up the rest of the lights up when they finished the project because of ongoing difficulties that were being experienced. So, I look forward to 31 being completed. It’s going to give an opportunity to certainly present our city in a different light.”
McMillan said other work that has already been completed include some sidewalks along the highway.
Work to widen U.S. 31 from downtown Spanish Fort to east of Alabama 181 began in 2018. Weather and the need to move unmapped utilities delayed progress on the project, according to state highway officials.
At the beginning of 2021, officials said the work would be completed by April. That date was later moved to October and then the end of the year.
