DAPHNE – Work could begin this month to dredge the D’Olive Bay channel and improve vessel access to the Daphne public boat launch and Mobile Bay, following action by the Daphne City Council.
The council voted March 2 to award the contract to dredge the channel to M.D. Thomas Construction. The company submitted a bid of $749,500.
Councilman Joel Coleman said work should begin within a month and be completed in 60 to 90 days.
The total cost of the project when engineering fees and other expenses are added is expected to be $810,000, according to a council resolution. The resolution said engineering fees for CE&I will be $25,000 and other costs are expected to be about $35,000.
Mayor Dane Haygood said most of the costs will be paid through a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act.
Haygood said the project will remove sediment that has clogged the channel and access to the city’s public boat launch near the Lake Forest Yacht Club for years.
“We now have our public launch, although it’s been limited usability,” Haygood said. “This will help open that so people will be able to navigate out of next to Lake Forest Yacht Club and maybe even get out into the bay and enjoy the waterfront, the historic identity of the city of Daphne.”
Excessive erosion and sedimentation caused by development have created problems in the D’Olive Creek Watershed since the 1970s, according to a report by the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program. The watershed includes Lake Forest Lake, D’Olive Bay and Mobile Bay.
In November, Gov. Kay Ivey announced that that 16 Baldwin and Mobile County projects would receive $28 million in GOMESA funding. Other Baldwin projects include a Spanish Fort Causeway park and new Baldwin County boat launch in the Intracoastal Waterway.
GOMESA is a federal revenue sharing program that allows money from offshore oil and gas leases in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas to be used for coastal conservation, restoration and hurricane protection projects.
The council also voted to approve $10,000 in funding to pay the additional cost of the project.
