Addie McCluskey
Elmore Autauga News
The Elmore County Commission approved resolutions to widen, level, resurface, and traffic stripe Rifle Range Road, Redland Road, and Friendship Road, and a resolution to replace the bridge over Channahatchee Creek on Robinson Road, Jan. 12, 2026, during their regular meeting.
Each resolution for road improvement was presented and approved ahead of the county’s application for funding through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT’s) Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant program, which supports multi-modal and multi-jurisdictional projects that are more difficult to fund through other grant programs.
“I want to be clear that we do not have the funding, but we are going to apply for the grant funding,” said Chief Engineer and Operations Officer Luke McGinty. “That’s why these projects are on the agenda.”
A resolution for the bridge on Robinson Road was also presented and approved ahead of the county’s application for USDOT’s Bridge Investment Program (BIP) grant, which provides funding for bridge replacement, rehabilitation, preservation, and protection projects to reduce the number of bridges in poor condition or at risk of declining into poor condition. The project will be submitted as part of a regional BIP grant application in partnership with 30 other counties.
“One of the reasons we chose this bridge on Robinson Road is because it’s one of our last timber piles,” said McGinty. “As part of this grant, we have to have a theme, and our theme is old wooden bridges or bridges that were built with wooden components.”
McGinty noted the high cost of each project makes grant funding essential, and approval of the resolutions allows the county to move forward with the application process.
“People have to understand that, even though we are approving the projects tonight, the work will not get done unless we get approved for the grant,” said District 1 Commissioner Henry Hines.
The full discussion can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qTMRj4CRcU&t=218s.
