Despite some reports to the contrary from a local blog, county officials said earlier this week that the newly constructed roundabout in Fairhope was on schedule to be finished and open by Aug. 1.

County Engineer Cal Markert told Baldwin County’s commissioners that the project appeared to be moving into its final phases at full speed.

The grass is done and we’ve got a little bit of concrete work left,” Markert said. “We started the paving yesterday – we got the first layer down all in one day, so we expect to have the second layer down today and finish paving by Thursday or Friday morning.”

Markert said striping would follow the paving process.

“We’ve got a strong commitment from the contractor that they’re going to open on Aug. 1, and we’re on track to meet that unless we have two or three days of tornados or real bad weather,” Markert said.

“The contract is actually ahead of time,” Markert said. “If not for some early utility delays that were out of our control, we would be further ahead. Our main goal was to be open before school and we’re beating that by two or three weeks.”

The roundabout, located at the intersection of County Road 13 and County Road 48 (Fairhope Ave.) has been the subject of much discussion in the area, but Commissioner Chris Elliott said he was pleased to be able to let local residents know the road would soon be open for business.

“It’s exactly what we advertised and exactly what we told the media and the public in terms of scheduling,” Elliott said. “I appreciate the cooperation that the city of Fairhope and Mayor Kant gave us on this county-managed project.”