Alabama Welcome Center to close for first phase of work
A $47.5 million project for reconstruction and rehabilitation of 16 miles of I-59 southbound near the Georgia state line will begin after Memorial Day.
From the state line to about a mile north of the US-11 overpass in Fort Payne, contractor Wiregrass Construction will demolish and replace about 10 miles of the roadway and rehabilitate another six miles.
Welcome center to close
The first phase of the project will tackle a roughly one-mile stretch of I-59 southbound from the state line to south of the Alabama Welcome Center on I-59 in DeKalb County.
Beginning Tuesday, May 26, weather permitting, Wiregrass expects to begin milling and paving the inside southbound lane and shoulder in that area. ALDOT advises motorists to expect single-lane closures. For real-time traffic and road condition information, visit ALGOtraffic.com or download the ALGO Traffic app.
Next, the contractor will install concrete barriers to close the outside southbound lane and begin work to demolish and reconstruct the outside lane. The lane closure will necessitate a 90-day closure of the welcome center beginning Monday, June 1.
Once the outside lane is reconstructed, the contractor will swap traffic to the new outside lane and the welcome center will reopen. Wiregrass will then reconstruct the inside lane in a similar fashion.
Later phases
Two later phases will each shut down roughly five-mile segments of the southbound roadway for extended periods while Wiregrass demolishes and reconstructs the roadway. During these phases, all traffic will shift to the northbound roadway, with northbound and southbound traffic separated by barriers.
Those phases will be similar to the phasing of earlier I-59 reconstruction projects. During those projects, contractors replaced eight- to ten-mile segments of either the northbound or southbound roadway by closing and reconstructing four or five miles at a time in separate phases within each project.
This project will address a longer segment overall and includes several miles of roadway that will undergo extensive repairs rather than full reconstruction.
ALDOT anticipates completion in February 2029.
I-59 reconstruction
The project is the sixth in an ongoing effort to reconstruct I-59 in northeast Alabama. Two other reconstruction projects remain currently active on I-59 in DeKalb County, northbound near the state line and southbound going into Etowah County.
Since 2020, ALDOT has awarded $239.2 million in contracts to reconstruct I-59. When this project is complete, nearly two-thirds of I-59 from south of Stephens Gap Road north of Gadsden in Etowah County to the state line will have been reconstructed. Many additional miles will have undergone widening and rehabilitation as part of these projects.
ALDOT anticipates letting later this year a seventh project, which will reconstruct the northbound roadway, from north of SR-68 at Collinsville to Exit 218 at SR-35 in Fort Payne.
The effort is a costly but much-needed investment in the infrastructure supporting northeast Alabama. Age and deterioration of the underlying concrete roadways necessitated total reconstruction for much of the highway.
Ongoing I-59 reconstruction projects
Wiregrass Construction continues work on the southernmost four miles of an eight-mile project to replace the northbound roadway from north of Hammondville to the state line. ALDOT anticipates completion of the $41 million project near the end of the year.
Meanwhile, contractor Vulcan Materials nears the halfway point of a $40.7 million project to reconstruct more than 10 miles of the southbound roadway in Dekalb and Etowah counties between Collinsville and Reece City, with completion planned for 2027.
Previous I-59 reconstruction projects
ALDOT previously completed three reconstruction projects on the corridor:
- In 2022, Wiregrass finished replacing eight miles of the northbound roadway through Fort Payne at a cost of $25.2 million.
- In 2024, Wiregrass completed reconstruction of more than 10 miles northbound between Reece City and Collinsville at a cost of $44 million.
- In 2025, contractor A.G. Peltz Group completed the replacement of an eight-mile segment between Fort Payne and Hammondville at a cost of $40.8 million.
This southbound project starting next week parallels two of the northbound projects — the ongoing project with Wiregrass Construction and the project A.G. Peltz completed last year.
