End of work in sight for Gordo bypass

GORDO, Ala. (WBRC) - A west Alabama bypass that never seemed to get finished is now in the final stretch.

The ALDOT project we’re taking about is the Gordo bypass just off Highway 82.

ALDOT has signed the final contract for the last leg of the 8-mile project to be completed. The cost? More than $45 million tax dollars.

What was supposed to have been a 4-year job will end up taking nearly 9 years to get done.

Gordo Mayor Craig Patterson couldn’t be more pleased.

“Extremely excited to see come to fruition,” said Mayor Patterson.

The project started in 2017 with the goal of wrapping it up in 2020, at the latest. But nature had its way with a really wet rainy season one summer and then COVID.

“Moving forward, we ran into COVID and had the wettest summer in July and some earth-moving problems we did not anticipate and so since that part’s finished, we now do the base and pave. We appreciate the public’s patience and the great thing about this - it does not impact traffic,” said McWilliams.

What’s left to do is what John McWilliams calls the base-and-pave portion. In simple terms, creating the base to support 200,000 tons of asphalt stretching all 8 miles.

“Once it’s completed, this will be something the community will utilize,” said McWilliams.

“We’ve had a lot of weather issues and it’s been one thing after another,” said Patterson.

Gordo and ALDOT seem to be on the other side of all those ‘one thing after another’ hurdles. What makes this most recent development exciting for the majority of the town of 16,000 is the fact this has been in the works since 1999 - 25 years ago.

“We got another crossing with a state highway and we feel like it’ll be a good interchange with some businesses, and you know it only takes one to get some others started,” said Patterson.

The road to completion starts this fall.

McWilliams says the final phase will take about 2.5 years.

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