The Cullman County Commission has approved the first of what it hopes will be three separate federally-backed road projects, taking advantage of a massive statewide road improvement initiative Gov. Robert Bentley announced in February.

The commission approved two paving projects to improve portions of County Road 222, one in the Bremen area; the other near Trimble. Together, the two projects represent the county’s first effort to tap into the governor’s ATRIP road improvement program — the largest road infrastructure reinvestment package in the state’s history.

ATRIP — the Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program — will initially fund more than $138 million in upgrades to 105 approved projects, so far, throughout the state.

The two CR 222 projects in Cullman County comprise $1.8 million of that amount, with the county obligated to contribute $216,000, which represents the program’s standard requirement that local governments provide a 20 percent match on all ATRIP projects.

So far, the county commission has simply approved the CR 222 project; associate commissioner Stanley Yarbrough said Wednesday bids won’t go out for actual road work until this fall.

Once the local projects are underway, they will involve the asphalt resurfacing of two separate stretches of CR 222: one, a 2.6-mile section from Ala. Highway 69 near Stony Lonesome OHV park to CR 109 near Cold Springs; the other a two-mile stretch of the same road, from CR 310 to CR 410 near Trimble.

While $216,000 is a lot of money, county officials said the state’s 80 percent match offers too good a value to pass up.

“We don’t get the chance to put down asphalt very often — we almost have to take advantage of this one,” said county road superintendent Roy Jackson. “With this matching money, it will cost us $13,000 per mile to lay down asphalt. Normally, without any help, it runs us about $60,000 a mile. It’s even less [expensive] than what we normally pay even for chip seal, which is just tar a gravel. That usually costs us about $26,000 a mile.”

The City of Hanceville has also been approved for one ATRIP project in this first wave of funding, winning approval for a project to pave Commercial Street, one of the city’s main thoroughfares, from downtown all the way to the edge of town. County commissioners said they plan to partner with Hanceville to pick up paving on the road after it leaves the city limits.

The governor’s office pledges to release at least two more massive rounds of funding on a similar scale for additional road projects later this year and in the early part of 2013. As in the current round of ATRIP funding, local governments will submit applications specifying their needs, in order to qualify for road improvements when the additional funds are released.

Commissioners said they won’t hesitate to apply for more ATRIP funds when the governor’s office launches the program’s second and third phases.

“It makes sense to go after this money, as long as we can find a way to come up with the matching funds,” said associate commissioner Darrell Hicks. “And it’s worth us trying to be one of the counties who can come up with the money, because some counties in Alabama didn’t even apply for this money — because they knew they wouldn’t have enough money to match it with.”

In all, 64 counties had at least one ATRIP project in the first phase. The ATRIP money comes from federal bonds issued under the Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle, or GARVEE, bond program. The GARVEE program allows states to borrow against their federal highway allotments in future years to finance immediate-need road projects.

The governor’s office touts the program as a relatively low-cost way to finance critical projects at a time when interest rates make borrowing the money less painful than it might be if rates increase in the future.

“By using GARVEE bonds, we are able to make much-needed improvements without raising taxes,” Bentley said in a prepared press release. “In addition, this program will create construction jobs across the state as projects move forward, and by making areas more attractive to prospective employers, the ATRIP program will help with the long-term recruitment of even more jobs in the future.”



* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.