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Hurricane Evacuation Route Is Well Ahead Of Schedule
June 2, 2008
A hurricane evacuation route in Alabama, partially funded by Escambia County, Florida, is expected to be completed well ahead of schedule.
The Alabama Highway 113 widening project is about 60 percent complete, only about 30 percent into the project’s allotted time. The four lanes on Alabama Highway 113 from Flomaton, Alabama, to I-65 will provide a four lane evacuation route from Highway 29 in Pensacola and North Escambia all the way to the interstate.
“We are shooting for a completion date around Labor Day,” Alabama Department of Transportation Acting District Engineer Brent Maddox told NorthEscambia.com. “I think we will make it. If we don’t we’ll be pretty close.”
The 14 mile widening project broke ground on September 11, 2007. Escambia County, Florida, contributed $4 million to the project. Flomaton and Escambia County, Alabama, each contributed $500,000 with the state of Alabama and the federal goverment picking up of the rest of the nearly $23 million tab.
Maddox praised contractor Grady Rawls & Sons from Evergreen, Alabama, for their work on the project. “To be over half done with the project in one third the time is just amazing,” he said.
He said the asphalt is complete on some stretches of the highway, and the deck is almost complete on one major bridge along the route.
This agreement will improve our ability to get people away from danger more quickly,” Governor Riley said of the two state project. “Anytime we work together like this, everyone wins. I’m very pleased that we’ve looked at this from a regional basis and gotten participation from Alabama and Florida. We’ve got to think of these kind of projects from a regional basis because it benefits people across state lines. This is the way it ought to work.”
Hurricane season officially began yesterday, June 1. The primary hurricane evacuation route from Pensacola and North Escambia is Highway 29 north into Alabama to Highway 113 to I-65. In past evacuations, traffic has come to a complete stop on the two lane Highway 113 between Flomaton and the interstate.
Pictured above: Highway 113 as it heads north from Flomaton, Alabama. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge. Pictured middle: The September 11, 2007, groundbreaking for the widening project, including Alabama Governor Bob Riley, Escambia County District 5 Commissioner Kevin White, Century Mayor Freddy McCall and Flomaton Mayor Dewey Bondurant. File photo.
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