County Commission | The Magazine December 2018 | Page 30

FROM THE COVER
Rallying Support
for County Roads
and Bridges
DRIVE Alabama is a coalition
of community leaders, elected
officials and everyday citizens
who are committed to developing
a transportation and infrastructure
vision that will meet the state’s
21 st century mobility needs. The
coalition was the brainchild of
Alabama’s 67 county engineers,
who recognized the urgent need to
educate the public about the current
state of county roads and bridges.
www.DRIVEAlabama.org
@DriveAlabama
DRIVE Alabama
30 | DECEMBER 2018
County Innovations
County Road and Bridge Departments have a long track record of
implementing innovative solutions to enhance public services, save
money or save time.
• Jackson County is using
a technique called hydro-
demolition to repair the deck
of the county’s longest and
tallest bridge rather than
rebuilding from scratch. A
new bridge was estimated at
$10 million, but the repair is
projected to cost less than
half a million dollars.
• Marshall County turned to
high-tech materials on a
recent bridge replacement,
utilizing geosynthetic
Alabama Motor Grader Training Program is nationally
reinforced soil abutments and The
recognized, earning a 2018 Achievement Award from the National
an integrated bridge system.
Association of Counties.
The old structure was
removed and replaced in less than 60 days.
• Dissatisfied with costly and time-consuming training options available, Alabama
counties worked together to create a training program for motor grader operators.
Expert operators from Alabama counties serve as instructors. In its first year, more
than a dozen sessions were conducted, and 90 county employees were trained, all for
less than $10,000.
• The County Joint Bid Program is a long-running example of counties working together
to solve a universal problem. Using counties’ combined buying power, the cooperative
purchasing program has driven down prices for heavy equipment and reaped savings on
herbicides, road sign materials and metal pipe. In the last decade, the program expanded
to services, with the addition of pre-disaster contracts for storm debris removal.