The intersection of Alabama Highway 91 and U.S. Highway 31 seen Tuesday morning.

HANCEVILLE — Hanceville is inching closer to the start of a planned overhaul for the city’s busiest intersection, with the city council last week agreeing to terms attached to $650,000 in state grant money ahead of bidding out work to improve the crossing of Alabama Highway 91 and U.S. Highway 31.

Funded through the Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program-II (ATRIP-II), the project will add a turn lane to Highway 91’s eastbound approach to its meeting with U.S. Highway 31, an area that currently offers no second lane for through traffic at the signal-controlled intersection. It will also upgrade traffic controls at the intersection with new pole-mounted signals, to replace the current wire-supported ones.

Work at the intersection is estimated to cost the city $747,000 overall, with the ATRIP-II grant covering most of that expense. Mayor Kenneth Nail earlier told The Times that the city may wait until the 2024 fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 before soliciting construction bids on the project, since the remaining cost was not factored into the current FY 2023 budget.

Gov. Kay Ivey announced the most recent round of statewide ATRIP-II awards earlier this year, flagging 33 new infrastructure projects across Alabama set to receive a combined $40 million in ATTRIP-II money. Since the program began four years ago, the state has awarded more than $140 million in total project funding.

In other business at its recent regular meeting, the council:

• Adopted a new retirement benefit ordinance allowing for full-time Hanceville police officers with at least two years of service (as well as ten years of service in law enforcement overall) to receive their service weapon and badge at the time of their retirement.
• Approved the purchase of additional 2-cent tobacco tax stamps, which are required for products sold inside the city’s police jurisdiction, at a cost of $3,420.
• Declared surplus a number of miscellaneous tools and fixtures no longer needed by the police and public works departments.
• Reappointed Betty Dover to the Hanceville Zoning Board of Adjustments.