By Blake Deshazo | The Selma Times-Journal

The Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) was hoping to give people that ride down Broad Street a smoother ride by repaving the road, but that project has been delayed.

Broad Street was scheduled to be repaved around this time, but according to Brantley Kirk, a spokesperson for ALDOT, the project has been pushed back to the spring.

“We’re delaying it so the city has some time to perform some utility work,” Kirk said.

She also added that it has been pushed back due to seasonal limitations.

“You don’t want to go lay asphalt in the cold rain. It’s not going to do much good,” Kirk said. “It probably would have started around this time frame, which they probably would have run into some weather limitations regardless.”

Kirk said the project includes planing, resurfacing and traffic striping the road from the Edmund Pettus Bridge to Alabama Highway 14, which stretches about 1.8 miles.

Kirk said the contract for the project was awarded to Asphalt Contractors Inc. out of Montgomery.

“They have 50 working days,” Kirk said. “What that means is actual working days. That’s not 50 calendar days or 50 exact business days. It’s 50 days that they are actually out there working.”

Kirk said depending on the weather, the project should take around two months.

“You’re not going to go do work while its raining or things like that, and you’re getting into that kind of season in the spring,” Kirk said.

Kirk said the project will cost $1.2 million to complete.

The work is scheduled to be done during nighttime hours to reduce interruptions in traffic and other business along Broad Street.

Kirk said information about reduced speed or delays will be issued to the public once the final details of the project are hammered out.