$2 million coming for Helicon Road

ARLEY - An agreement has been reached between the Alabama Department of Transportation and Winston County Commission, approving $2 million in state monies to resurface County Road 77, otherwise known as Helicon Road, from County Road 41 in Arley to County Road 22 in Helicon.
District 1 Commissioner Rutger Hyche announced the funding at the commission’s Monday, Dec. 29, meeting
“We’ve got a lot of problems on 77 that’s coming up, what James (Glasgow) refers to as alligator chunks,” Hyche emphasized at the commission meeting, referring to Road Engineer James Glasgow.
“We talked to the state, and we got a pretty good sum of money,” Hyche added. “We’re going to have to match it with $400,000. We can use our Rebuild Alabama or Federal Exchange match money for it.”
The project will resurface, as well as provide shoulder improvements and striping for five miles of County Road 77, which will be a major relief, since the road has only been patched the past several years and is deteriorating, county officials stated.
“We have done a traffic count, and (County Road) 77 actually has more traffic on it than U.S. 278 from Addison and Double Springs, daily,” Hyche stated.

The deteriorating condition of County Road 77 became more apparent, Hyche explained, after a hard winter freeze in recent years “when everything froze, thawed out and re-froze again,” Hyche explained.
“That is when we started seeing large alligator cracks (in the asphalt),” Hyche pointed out.
“After that hard, hard freeze a couple of years ago, we constantly patched 77,” Hyche added.
 “We would have loved to have (paved) it all the way through, but we knew we couldn’t get all the money to do the whole project.  So, we decided we would do the Arley to 22 because it seemed to be the higher 

raffic area,” Hyche continued.
Now that the funding has been approved, the resurfacing project is scheduled to be let out for bids in January, according to Hyche.
“Once the bids come in, we’ll move forward on it,” Hyche said. “We’ll try to get the other half of 77 as soon as we can.
“I appreciate them bearing with us,”  Hyche said about residents and commuters who use County Road 77.  “Just know that we’re working to try to bring money back into Winston County.”
Now that the County Road 77 has been funded, the county can devote time that would have formerly been spent on that road on other roads in need, according to Hyche.
Commission Chairman David Cummings stressed that County Road 77 is a heavily traveled road in dire need of improvement.
“It is one of those upward traffic counts in the county and it is deteriorating terribly,” Cummings emphasized.
“The biggest issue we ran into was 77 deteriorating to the point it was going to tie up all of our Rebuild (Alabama) monies for the forseeable future, because it is such a heavily traveled route,” Glasgow pointed out.
“For us to get 80 percent funding on this helps us out tremendously,” Glasgow added. “(The road) looks like cobblestone, basically.”
County Road 77, which was last resurfaced in the early 2000s, had its last chip and seal patch job around 2017, according to Glasgow.
“It’s been needing work,” he said,  
Cummings continued, “With our engineers, Rutger (Hyche) and our legislators working real hard, everybody on the same page, (District 2 Commissioner) Roger (Hayes) and myself all working, sending support letters and making sure we go to events to stress our concern of needing the money,  it happened.”
“It is an effort of everyone involved to put a good grant letter together and receive it,” Cummings added.
“I appreciate all of our legislators and senators, James (Glasgow), everybody involved in that project,” Hyche continued. 
“It is absolutely huge to bring that kind of money back into Winston County,” he added.

State legislators comment on project

State Senate Pro-Tem Garlan Gudger noted he was proud and thankful to play a part in making the funding a reality for his district.
“Providing good roads for safe travel is an important quality-of-life issue,” Gudger stated. “Serving as a bridge between local officials and state agencies, in order to fill community needs is one of the most important duties of a legislator.”
State Representative Tim Wadsworth added, “County Road 77 has  been in need for repair for a long time.
“The road connects Arley to Helicon. We appreciate all involved in getting the funding for this project,” Wadsworth added.
“The paving of this road is a major benefit for the Arley to Helicon community,” Wadsworth said.

Town officials
 commend county, state officials on road improvement

Arley Mayor Johnny Taylor stressed the entire county has road problems.
“Five miles would be a tremendous help for our town, especially,” Taylor said. “I am thankful for Representative Wadsworth and the entire county commission.  That is wonderful news.”
Arley Police Chief Jerry Cummings stressed County Road 77 has faced its share of cracks through the years.
“It gets worse and worse every year,” Cummings said. 
“With this money, they can take it and go from County Road 41 down 77 and do road improvements, a big safety for the citizens and safety for the lake people who come up and visit during the summertime,” the police chief added.
“It’s all about public safety, and that’s a good thing,” he noted.
Fire Chief James Rickett noted County Road 77 has some bad places. 
“We will see dips (in the road.). We’ll see cracks in it.  We’ll see potholes,” Rickett said.
“It needs (resurfacing), because it and (County Road) 41 are the two most traveled roads on this side of the county,” Rickett pointed out. “Anybody would admit that, not counting 278.”