The Dallas County Commission voted Monday to award the contract for two Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program (ATRIP) projects on County Road 7 and to go forward with a federal aid project on County Road 43.

The Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) recommended the contract for County Road 7 be awarded to Asphalt Contractors Inc., a company out of Montgomery.

“The Alabama Department of Transportation opened the bids, and they recommended the lowest, and the commission concurred with their recommendation,” said Dallas County Engineer Coosa Jones.

Asphalt Contractors had the lowest bid, which was $2,008,997.50. The bracket estimate from ALDOT was from $2,002,236 to $2,447,177. A second bid for the project came in from Chilton Contractors Inc. in Clanton for $2,020,387.77, and a third bid came in from Wiregrass Construction Company Inc. in Dothan for $2,179,579.62.

Two projects will be completed on County Road 7, which is in District 1. Jones said the last major repair to the road was done 10 to 15 years ago, and the work is much needed since the road is used so much for people traveling south.

The road will be planed, resurfaced, reconstructed and re-striped. The project will stretch from the intersection of County Roads 7 and 62 all the way to Pleasant Hill, where the road intersects County Road 12. The total length of the project according to a project description from ALDOT is just over 5 miles.

Jones said the cost of the project will be split between the county and the state with the county paying 20 percent, and the state paying 80 percent.

Jones said he expects the project to start sometime this summer, and according to a project description from ALDOT, it will take 165 working days to complete.

The County Road 43 project, which is a federal aid project, will be bid by ALDOT on June 30. The project, which consists of resurfacing and re-striping, will cover almost two miles of road from the junction of County Road 420 to U.S. Highway 80.

“It’s just been a long time since anything has been done to it,” Jones said Monday. “Matter of fact, it looks like the original stuff that was put down years ago.”

The cost for the project is estimated to be somewhere between $347,000 to $425,000. Jones said he expects the project to start later this summer, and it is estimated to take a month to complete.