By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

MONTGOMERY – Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has ordered the Alabama Department of Transportation to place a project to widen Interstate 65 between Alabaster and Pelham on the agency’s five-year plan, and local officials said they are hopeful the project will begin in 2017.

“Today, I have ordered the Alabama Department of Transportation to place the Shelby Co. I-65 project back on the 5 year plan. There will be no delay,” Bentley Tweeted at about 5 p.m. on Dec. 8.

Interstate 65 in Shelby County currently contains six travel lanes – Three northbound and three southbound – north of Exit 242 in Pelham, but narrows to four total lanes south of Exit 242.

The widening plan calls for I-65 to be expanded to six lanes between Exit 238 in Alabaster and Exit 242 in Pelham.

In November, ALDOT published its five-year plan outlining several road projects it plans to complete over the next few fiscal years. While several Shelby County projects were on the list, the I-65 widening project was not budgeted until 2020.

After seeing the plan, Alabaster leaders contacted local legislators, who brought the matter to Bentley’s attention, state Rep. Mike Hill, R-Columbiana, said during a Dec. 8 phone interview.

“I was told just last spring that this was the most important interstate project in Alabama,” Hill said. “The project is ready to let, and I was a little nervous that they had rescheduled it until 2020.

“As soon as the governor heard about it, he said he was putting it back on the five-year plan,” Hill said. “I was excited to hear that.”

Hill said Bentley ordered the project to be placed on ALDOT’s 2017 fiscal year budget, and said some work could even begin as soon as late 2016.

“The mayor and City Council would like to thank our local Shelby County delegation for contacting the governor’s office and asking for this vital project to be reprioritized,” Alabaster City Manager George Henry wrote in a statement. “We look forward to this expansion being completed in the coming years.”