By Fred Guarino
The Lowndes Signal

Traffic, which makes use of Lowndes County Road 37 from Fort Deposit to the area of Calhoun High School will find the portion of the road in the area called “the slide” closed Monday morning, Jan. 14.

Lowndes County Engineer David Butts said the road will be closed for repair for up to 60 working days. He explained working days do not include days of rain or weekends.

The detour for local traffic will be Bishop Bottom Road.

W.S. Newell and Sons Inc. of Montgomery will do the $1,228,833 million road repair project, Butts said. However, he said, he hopes the project will not take the full 60 working days to complete.

“Thanks to (State) Sen. Hank Sanders,” the county will not have to provide any matching funds for this emergency relief project, Butts said.

Butts said the problem in “the slide” area of County Road 37 is due to a spring or water table 60-70 feet below the roadbed.

Butt said the water is “getting up into roadbed and gets trapped.” He said the result is the road slips.

“And when it slides from the bottom,” it sinks “like a sinkhole,” he explained.

Butts said Newell and Sons Inc. will dig down and install a French drain.”

He explained that the pipe will allow the water to run out of the roadbed.

Butts said the company will also pack dirt on top and pave the road. In addition, Butts said “riprap” (loose stones) will be put on the slope to prevent the road from sliding.

“Oh man, it’s very important,” Butts said of this road repair project. “It’s a mainstream artery coming from Fort Deposit to Hayneville… and then the bus routes and everything use it.”

He called Lowndes County Road 37 “a very important road.”

He said the road section, which had been reduced to one lane, has been out for two years and he’s “ecstatic about the project.”

Butts explained the “emergency relief funds” being used are federal and state funds.

He said the detour for local traffic would be Bishop Bottom Road.

While Butts said the road will be closed from Lowndes County Road 33 to Fort Deposit, he said the area being repaired is about a tenth of a mile. He said local traffic that can reach its destination going south or north before the part under repair will be able to use the road.

“You just can’t go all the way through. It’s not going to be a throughway,” he said.