West Alabama Corridor field office to be headquartered in Demopolis

Developers involved in the West Alabama Corridor construction project gathered with dignitaries on Monday morning to celebrate the start of building out a field office in Demopolis that will house about 130 employees.

Corridor construction firm Brasfield & Gorrie is renovating two former retail buildings next to Marvin’s on US Highway 80 in Demopolis to serve as offices for contractors, subcontractors and suppliers working the 74-mile road widening project from Thomasville to Moundville that should take several years.

Brasfield & Gorrie Operations Manager Trey Ogle said 120 to 140 workers will operate out of two buildings being renovated for a total of 40,000 square feet. While abandoned for years, one building used to be a Piggly Wiggly while the other housed various restaurants.

Workers will be housed in Demopolis for several years during construction of the West Alabama Corridor that is about to start, Ogle said. He described the project as a progressive design-build where the 74-miles are broken into 13 segments for design, pricing, then construction. It is now moving into the construction phase and will hire up to 700 to complete the project. 

Ogle said they are hoping to hire local workers in the surrounding area. Job openings can be found at westalabamahighway.com. Vendor applications for businesses wanting to work on the project are also at that website.

Demopolis Mayor Woody Collins said the city is thrilled Brasfield & Gorrie chose their Marengo County city as the home base and “hub for all the action” of the billion-dollar project. They’re also pleased they are renovating a formerly vacant property. 

The West Alabama Corridor has been four or five decades in the making, Collins added, and it is exciting to see it coming to fruition, even if it is not going through the heart of Demopolis on Highway 43 as originally planned.

The corridor adds lanes to US Highway 43 and State Route 69 to provide a four-lane divided highway from Thomasville to Moundville and will have five bypasses to divert traffic from town centers. It completes a 200-mile corridor connecting Mobile and Tuscaloosa.

“When it was first announced, we were disappointed it would not be on 43 and was moved to 69,” Collins said. “But what is good for West Central Alabama is good for Demopolis. Even though its five or six miles out of town now, it’s great. We still have to get folks coming off the highway to come downtown for tourism.”

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State Sen. Bobby Singleton, who represents District 24, called the Demopolis field office and the project’s progress a dream come true, especially the inclusion of Hale County in the road plans.

“This is something historic for this region – it’s one of the largest I know in my lifetime in the West Alabama area,” Singleton said.

Singleton said it will spur economic development in this area and will make the region more competitive when vying for industry. It should also push for more broadband and improved water and sewer lines in the area.

“It will say, ‘We are open for business,’” Singleton said. “We know it’s been a long time coming, but we believe what we get from this will be sustainable for a lifetime.”

Alabama Department of Transportation’s Tony Harris called the field office opening another milestone toward keeping a promise made four decades ago to build a four-lane highway to Mobile with multiple points of connectivity to interstates.

“Putting a field office here makes perfect sense,” Harris said. “It provides a central location for the corridor, it repurposes available infrastructure and it is one more way the highway provides new benefits to the counties along this corridor.”

Harris added the project is being led by an Alabama-based contractor, Brasfield & Gorrie, that is hiring Alabama companies to contribute and ALDOT looks forward to the jobs the project provides.

“Together we’re on track to achieve something remarkable for Black Belt and the entire state,” Harris said.