BAY MINETTE, Ala. (WKRG) — Highway 287, also known as Rabun Road, is a four-lane divided highway that runs from Interstate 65 all the way to the beaches and right in front of the new $2.5 billion Novelis plant.

“There is not a day that goes by that somebody is not out here doing something,” says Baldwin County Commissioner Jeb Ball.

A $5 million grant from the Alabama Industrial Access Road and Bridge Corporation has just been awarded and will help deliver critical transportation infrastructure in an area where traffic is already being impacted by the high amount of heavy machinery and trucks needed to build the plant.

“It’s going to be very important for us to make 287 as safe as possible where traffic coming into and out of Novelis is not going to impede the oncoming traffic,” says Ball.

That means roadway widening, resurfacing and drainage enhancements.

“This money will help offset the costs of building the entrance and exits into Novelis’s plant as well as the much-needed improvements that are going to have to happen on Highway 287,” says Ball.

Part of the grant money will also be used to build an access road on-site to accommodate the expected increase in traffic.

It’s been just over a year since ground was broken on the 3,000-acre site.

The landscape is already being molded into what will be an economic game changer for the region when the plant opens in 2025.