By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Alabaster Boulevard is now reopened to traffic after it was closed for more than a week to allow for repairs to a sagging portion of the roadway.

The roadway, which connects the Propst Promenade shopping center with the Weatherly and Ballantrae neighborhoods, reopened to traffic on July 26, as was originally scheduled, the city announced on its Facebook page. The road had been closed to traffic since July 17.

During its April 24 meeting, council members voted unanimously to award a $104,895 bid to the Southeastern Sealcoating company to repave the portion of the roadway. Southeastern Sealcoating was the sole bidder on the project, which was advertised in March, and the funding for the bid will come from the city’s capital projects fund.

As a result of a change order, the city will pay Southeastern Sealcoating an additional $25,705. The additional expense allowed the company to add further improvements to the section of roadway to keep rain water from pooling in the travel lanes.

Crews had already completed curb repairs to the area in preparation for the lane repairs. The section is slightly north of Candlewood Suites, where the landscaped center portion of the road ends.

In 2014, an engineering study found Alabaster Boulevard to be in overall “poor” condition, with several sagging and damaged sections. Since the roadway was constructed in 2005, the road base and fill materials under the roadway have caused parts of the roadway to develop humps and “places where the pavement is graveling out,” Alabaster City Engineer Brett Tucker said previously.

The 2014 engineering study identified 11 areas in need of repairs, and the original bids to repair the entire roadway at once came in at about $750,000, which was significantly higher than the city had estimated.