Five miles of I-59 southbound near Hammondville in DeKalb County will close to traffic for about a year while a contractor demolishes and replaces the aging roadway.
Wiregrass Construction, the contractor on the $47.5 million project, plans to divert southbound traffic to the inside lane of the northbound roadway Monday, Nov. 16.
The closure will extend from north of milepost 235 to south of milepost 230, and will include closure of the southbound on- and off-ramps at Exit 231 (SR-40/SR-117) at Hammondville. US-11 will serve as the detour.
Concrete barriers will separate northbound and southbound traffic on the northbound roadway.
The project, which will reconstruct and rehabilitate a total of about 16 miles of the southbound roadway from the Georgia state line to Fort Payne, started in May.
First phase remains underway
Wiregrass started the project by reconstructing a one-mile segment of the southbound roadway near the state line and the Alabama Welcome Center using a single-lane closure.
The contractor completed the outside lane and reopened it to traffic last month. Crews are now working to reconstruct the inside lane in that area.
Northbound project completed
A section of the northbound roadway corresponding to the five-mile southbound segment in the current project was reconstructed in two other projects.
Wiregrass recently completed a separate, $41 million project to reconstruct eight miles of the northbound roadway from milepost 233, north of Hammondville, to the Georgia state line.
A $40.8 million project with contractor A.G. Peltz Group that concluded in 2025 reconstructed the northbound segment from milepost 225 to 233.
Other I-59 projects
A $40.7 million project with contractor Vulcan Materials, now in its second phase, is reconstructing ten miles of the southbound roadway between Collinsville, in DeKalb County, and Reece City, in Etowah County.
Earlier projects replaced ten miles of the northbound roadway between Reece City and Collinsville and about eight miles from SR-35 to US-11 in Fort Payne.
When all current projects are complete, ALDOT will have reconstructed nearly two-thirds of I-59 from south of Stephens Gap Road in Etowah County to the state line. Many additional miles will have undergone widening and rehabilitation during these projects.
Upcoming project
ALDOT anticipates letting next month a seventh project, which will reconstruct the northbound I-59 roadway from north of SR-68 at Collinsville to Exit 218 at SR-35 in Fort Payne.
Design is underway for an eighth project, which will reconstruct the corresponding segment of southbound roadway between Fort Payne and Collinsville.
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