Northport Mayor Apologizes for Main Avenue Disruption as Overhaul Runs Behind
Northport Mayor Dale Phillips told business and civic leaders Tuesday that the city’s Main Avenue overhaul is running a little behind schedule 10 months in, and he apologized to the downtown businesses that have absorbed the disruption.
“Main Avenue may be one of the most talked-about things in the city of Northport right now,” Phillips said. “We get calls every day because of the inconvenience it causes, and I understand that. But you have to have inconvenience to gain progress.”
Phillips spoke at the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama’s Transportation Summit at the Tuscaloosa River Market early Tuesday morning, which was sponsored by Thompson Engineering and hosted by the city of Tuscaloosa.
Leaders from the cities of Northport and Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County, the Tuscaloosa County Road Improvement Commission and the ALDOT briefed the audience on road projects across the county.
The Main Avenue project will rebuild the corridor from 5th Street downtown to McFarland Boulevard. Phillips said it will cost a little under $6 million once complete. The city’s presentation shows the work is funded 80% through the Tuscaloosa Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, with Northport covering the remaining 20%.
“It’s really going to improve access to our downtown,” Phillips said. “I believe downtown Northport has been a little underused, and we need to revitalize it, wake it up, and get it thriving to what it can be.”
Sidewalks, Streets and a Slower Schedule
Plans call for road rehabilitation, 6-foot sidewalks with curb and gutter from 5th Street to 24th Street and from 32nd Street to McFarland, a realigned intersection at 10th Street, upgraded lighting, landscaping and drainage improvements. Phillips said utilities along the corridor will also be improved.
Work is currently concentrated between 5th and 10th streets, where crews are also relocating utilities, according to the city’s presentation. The Thread reported when that stretch closed to through traffic that GFC Construction is the contractor and TTL is handling engineering, and that the inconvenience could last up to a year.
“The project started in January of this year. We’re now about 10 months in,” Phillips said. “We think we’re a little behind, but we hope to make that up. If you are a business in downtown Northport, we apologize for the inconvenience, but when it’s done, this is going to help provide more access to those businesses and help them improve.”
Phillips did not give an updated completion date Tuesday.
Boulevards, Bridges and Buried Pipes
Phillips opened his presentation with better news: as the Thread reported this weekend, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is open.
Work began in January 2025 - right after the completion of a long bridge replacement of over Two Mile Creek on the same road - and Phillips said the project came in at a committed cost of a little over $28 million to rebuild the road, its bridge, sidewalks and lights.
The city’s slides show the roadway is 93% complete. Phillips said some striping, lighting and punch list items remain. Like Main Avenue, the project was funded 80% by the MPO and 20% by the city.
“For a city the size of Northport, this is good stuff,” Phillips said. “It looks great. It’s going to provide access to a lot of things coming down the road.”
Downtown, the third phase of Northport’s streetscape and sidewalk improvements is finished. The roughly $1.5 million phase added about 700 feet of streetscape along 1st Street, from the west side of the Lurleen Wallace Boulevard overpass to the Dreamland entrance. It was funded 80% by a federal Transportation Alternatives Program grant. Phillips said it “has really changed the look and the accessibility of that part of downtown,” and called it “an indication of where I think we want downtown to go.”
Phase IV, which will carry the work from the Dreamland entrance to 3rd Street, is in design. Phillips said it will cost around $2 million, and the city hopes to take bids in late November or December.
The city’s 5th Street project, which will rebuild the road from Main Avenue toward the Tuscaloosa National Airport up to the city limits, is waiting on a federal approval. Design is substantially complete, but the project is awaiting ALDOT authorization for right-of-way, according to the presentation. Plans call for roundabouts at Robert Cardinal Road, River Run Park North and 30th Avenue, along with Mill Creek bridge repairs, pedestrian lighting, sidewalk work and a shared-use path from Kentuck Park to Van de Graaf Park.
“Right now the federal money is held up,” Phillips said. “We’re hoping to get that released by the end of this month or early November. There are people working on that, but I won’t speak further to the timeline on that piece.”
Phillips also credited Councilor Jaime Conger with pushing a citywide effort to repair aging metal storm pipes beneath Northport’s streets. Engineers plan to reline the pipes that can be saved and replace those that cannot. Phillips said the city has committed $3 million to $4 million to the work, which draws on a 2023 storm sewer conditions assessment. The first phase, in-place rehabilitation, goes to bid November 24.
“We’ve gotten behind in some areas and we’re starting to see pipe failures and road failures, and all you engineers in the room know how expensive that gets if you let it go,” Phillips said. “Jaime pushed this, she didn’t give up, she got the rest of the council behind her, and I applaud her for that.”
Further out, Phillips described a conceptual, city-funded extension of Hospital Drive. It would link 3rd Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, creating an alternate north-south route between downtown Northport and Highway 82. He said the connection would ease access to downtown on game days and during events at Riverfront Park.
“This is our vision. It’s not a pipe dream, but it’s down the road,” he said.
Phillips, who is finishing his first year in office, said the projects take patience. “You have to set the goals,” he said. “You have to set your vision to a certain point, and you have to stay the course to get there.”
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