Fortner St. to reopen Wednesday

Motorists will once again be able to traverse Fortner St. next week, though more changes may be coming.

According to Dothan Public Works Director Jerry Corbin, the 4100 block of Fortner St., which has been closed for the past two weeks, should be open again to the public next Wednesday evening. However, other parts of the road may soon be getting maintenance work done.

“Fortner is partly maintained by the Houston County Road Division and partly by the city. That’s what caused this road work to take place,” Corbin said. “The county plans to widen Fortner by one foot on each side, and possibly resurface sometime in the next month.”

Corbin has received some complaints from residents and businesses in the area about the traffic problems caused by the road work, which took longer than the city expected. The city is replacing the existing metal culverts with concrete ones that should last longer.

“I want to apologize to the public for taking so long,” Corbin said. “We had some equipment issues the last part of last week and the early part of this week. There’s quite a bit of concrete work around there, which is slow and tedious. We’ve got crews working overtime, and we expect to have it finished by late Wednesday.”

Corbin did warn that some detailing work and topsoiling, but the entire road wouldn’t close for that work, just individual lanes.

“We apologize to the residents in those areas that are affected and the businesses that feel inconvenienced at this time,” Corbin said.