Perry County Road Conditions Causing Safety Concerns

From the West Alabama Newsroom–

The condition of a road in Perry County — has residents who use and who live on the road — scared for their safety.

The nine mile stretch of Perry County Road 12 — between Highways 5 and 183 — needs a lot of work.

Darrell Morgan lives on that section of the road.

“To describe the condition of this road would really take Webster’s Dictionary to describe how bad it is,” said Morgan.

District 4 Commissioner Cedric Hudson says a project to strip — strengthen — and repave the road — has been in the works for years.

“People are very upset about this project not being done. We first started working on this project way back in 2018,” he said.

Hudson says COVID-19 caused a delay in the project. But now the county commission — is dragging its feet — to get the project started.

“There’s no excuse for this. The funding has been sitting in an account for over three years.”

Residents say the road is extremely dangerous. And it needs to be fixed — before someone gets killed.

“Honestly, if you don’t know this road, it can be life-threatening,” said Lastavia Foster.

“Nobody wants to have to drive down the road and wonder. Okay, is this going to affect my car? Is this going to affect my life, is my child going to make it home? Is my father going to make it home?”

“My daughter had an accident on this road to where she ended up running into a tree. Car caught on fire. Because of the dips in the road,” said Morgan.

Hundreds of homes — about a dozen businesses — and county’s only airport — are located on County Road 12.

The cost of the project is about $3 million dollars.