Officials 'optimistic' about completing road

ST. FLORIAN - Lauderdale County engineer Ken Allamel said he is "cautiously optimistic" that St. Florian Road will be completed.

"I met with the federal highway administration and the Alabama Historical Commission earlier this week and was told basically what we already knew, that this was going to be a slow process," Allamel said. "But after the meeting, I'm optimistic that this project will move forward, just not as fast an any of us would like."

Allamel said they heard an update on the project during a brief meeting Friday morning at St. Florian Town Hall with officials from the town, county, Florence, Northwest Alabama Council of Local Governments and state Reps. Tammy Irons, D-Florence, and Mike Curtis, D-Greenhill.

The proposed road would be 1.5 miles long and would connect Lauderdale 47 and the Florence-Lauderdale Industrial Park.

The road, which is only a half-mile long now, would intersect with Parkway Drive in the Florence-Lauderdale Industrial Park.

Some concerns had been raised that the area where the route was planned would disturb some historical aspects of the town.

Allamel said that during a meeting this week, representatives from the historical commission said they were standing by their original findings that the road's route is not affecting anything historical.

The financing for the project is through the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Allamel said the funding would be 80 percent federal money and 20 percent local.

"This road is vital to our town," said outgoing Mayor Sam Hudson, who has been a driving force behind the planning of the road for years. "We've got 10,000-11,000 cars coming through here every day, and we need something to help improve the traffic flow."

Hudson said it just takes one day to sit and watch the traffic back up and realize something needs to be done.

"It's not going to be better, it's going to get worse," he said.

Lauderdale County Commissioner Larry Irons, who lives in the St. Florian area, said the heavy traffic also hurts the town's economy.

"People will bypass the merchants here because of the traffic. I know this has got to be putting a burden on the town," Irons said.

Another part of the planned construction is widening Lauderdale 47 from the new road to Church Road and adding traffic signals and turning lanes.

Allamel said the plans for the turning lanes have not been reviewed by the federal highway authority nor the state historical commission. He said he received approval by the state Department of Transportation to begin an historical and environmental assessment on that part of the project.

"We've done and are doing all we can. All we can do at this point is just wait until we get approval from the federal highway administration to move forward," Allamel said.

Tom Smith can be reached at 740-5757 or tom.smith@TimesDaily.com.