By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – Former state Transportation Director Ray Bass, who filled a prominent role in Governor George Wallace's administrations and oversaw some of the state's biggest highway projects, died Thursday. He was 73.
His son, Tom Bass of Gunterville, said his father died at Baptist Medical Center South from complications of internal bleeding.
Bass started working for the Transportation Department on a survey crew in 1957 while attending Auburn University. He served as the department's chief engineer from 1995 until he retired in 2005.
During his tenure as director, the department developed the Mobile interstate tunnel, the Mobile Bay and Mobile Delta interstate crossings, I-459 bypass in Birmingham, the I-565 connector in Huntsville, the Warrior Bridge in Tuscaloosa, and the Tennessee River Bridge in Guntersville.
The current chairman of the Joint Transportation Committee, state Representative Frank McDaniel of Albertville, said one of Bass's legacies would be the system of highway rest areas across the state, often recognized as among the best in the country.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)