Negotiations between City of Auburn and Lee County officials have concluded plans for a replacement bridge on North Donahue Drive near Yarborough Elementary School.
Also, Farmville Road is being annexed to become city property.
Prior to the recent negotiations, the City of Auburn only owned the segments of Farmville Road where city property was located on both sides of the street.
"If you were to call me up and say there's a pothole on Farmville Road at this address, then we'd have to sort out who goes to fix it," said City Manager Charlie Duggan.
Duggan said an inspection done in the last six months showed that the current bridge was still structurally sound, but was showing the normal wear and tear of a few decades.
The new bridge is designed to be longer, wider and high enough to meet standards set by updated FEMA national floodplain maps and city engineers.
The original construction cost as projected by Gonzalez-Strength & Associates, Inc. of Birmingham was $1.6 million.
D & J Enterprises Inc. of Auburn received the city contract with the low bid of $2.69 million for the project, with the cost divided between the city and county.
Duggan attributed the elevated cost to standard industry variance and an oversight by Gonzalez Strength.
Project Manager William Liveoak said Monday D & J would subcontract the actual task of the bridge to F & W Construction of Ozark while the Auburn company handled the road resurfacing.
The bridge remodeling project is scheduled to take approximately one year to complete.
The portion of Farmville Road between North Donahue and U.S. Highway 280 will serve as a detour while the bridge is being remodeled.
Lee County road crews are resurfacing 2.75 miles of Farmville Road in order to bring it up to city standards in preparation for the detour and annexation of Farmville Road as city property.
"It actually works out pretty well if the county can bring it up to city standards for the number of cars that are going to travel on it," Duggan said.
Duggan said most or all of the land would eventually become city property, but city officials say they are unsure when that will happen.
"This really provides for the people traveling on that road so there's no question about who needs to fix something and how quickly it can get done," Duggan said.
With the city assuming control of Farmville Road, the county is more able to contribute funding to deal with the elevated cost of the North Donahue bridge, which is being paid for by the city's $5 million fund.
"I think it's a fair trade, if you will," said Mayor Bill Ham.
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