Jasper approves nearly $2 million paving project

The Jasper City Council on Tuesday approved a bid to begin a road paving project that is part of the city’s four-point plan.

Mayor David O’Mary said on Tuesday that the bid for the work came in at just under $2 million, a million less than what they had considered less than a year ago.

“Inside of a year ago, when Covid was tapering down and inflation went through the roof, petroleum prices went through the roof, we put out bids for phase one of paving work that we wanted to have done in the city,” O’Mary said. “That bid came back $3.1 million. This council made the decision that it would probably be wise to not accept those bids and take our chances that things would get better.”

O’Mary said the previous bid included work that he said he did not believe “would have really benefited our streets and certainly would have burned up a lot of money.”

Wiregrass Construction, who had the winning bid for the project, has offices and plants across Alabama, including an asphalt production facility in Jasper.

“In all likelihood the asphalt used for paving will be produced here in Jasper. That has to be good for our economy,” O’Mary told the council.

In 2021, O’Mary said the pavement investment, as part of the city’s four-point plan, could reach an estimated $5 million.

“Jasper paved 70 percent of our roadways with a $9 million investment several years ago,” O’Mary said in 2021. “This would allow us to pave the remainder.”

On Tuesday, he emphasized that by taking the lower big, they will have more money leftover to develop phase two of the infrastructure project.

“Once we get through this, then we take stock of where we’re at, look at what remains to be done and develop phase two,” he said.

O’Mary said that, if weather permits, paving should begin in “six weeks or so.”