ALDOT announces the next phase in a long anticipated construction project.

Around 100 million state and federal dollars have been approved for the I-85 extension to build the next phase of the Montgomery Outer Loop.

This phase will include 3 or 4 separate construction projects to include ramp changes at the Waugh exit, realignment of Highway 80, building an interchange and paving the dirt roadbed for a section of the Outer Loop already in place.

The first segment of the loop will run from I-85 to Vaughn Road.

Gordon Stone, Mayor, Pike Road, says, “The city of Montgomery is the economic engine for jobs and we all know that we have residences, we’re a townships mostly made up of neighborhoods, those neighborhoods now will have a new way to access many of the services and opportunities that they want to take advantage of.”

Reed Ingram, Montgomery County Commissioner, District 5, says “This is huge for Montgomery County as a whole in a state this is going to bring jobs initially building the outer loop it's also going to get the seed planted for the first stage where we can carry it on the west side of the county.”

Bids are tentatively scheduled to be taken in May.

First construction could begin by late summer.

This phase is expected to create over 3000 jobs.

ALDOT has plans to eventually extend the Outer Loop all the way to I-65. A study is still under way to determine exactly where it will go from there, but it is expected to continue on to I20/59 near the Mississippi state line.

When the Outer Loop construction is complete, it will become I-85.

The old section of I-85 from the new interchange through Downtown Montgomery will be renamed I-685.

Completing the Outer Loop project from I-65 to I-85 is expected to cost around $500 million. Extending it to the state line would cost around $2.4 billion.