Pedestrian access along Alabama 59 and other parts of Foley is set to improve.

During a meeting on Monday, June 3, Foley City Council voted to seek funding for the construction of more than one mile of new sidewalk along the highway.

The city plans to apply for a grant from the Alabama Department of Transportation's Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) to support the project. If approved, the grant will fund the extension of sidewalks on the west side of Alabama 59, from Azalea Avenue south to Pride Drive, near Foley High School — a stretch of approximately 1.25 miles.

"It's something that we need to do," Mayor Ralph Hellmich said. "People walk up and down the grassy area there all the time. It will help us with our connectivity because we have a lot of east-west sidewalks, but we don't have anything north-south there."

City engineers determined the west side of the highway as the optimal location for the new sidewalks after evaluating both sides of the roadway.

In addition to the Alabama 59 project, Foley will expand and upgrade sidewalks in other parts of the city. Council approved an increase in Street Department funding to repair sidewalks along U.S. 98 between Cypress Street and Juniper Street in east Foley.

"We're replacing sidewalks that have been there since I was a kid that run from Juniper all the way to Cypress on Highway 98 on the south side," Hellmich said. "It had a lot of messed up areas where the oak trees have grown up and caused the sidewalks to crack, so we're going to have a new modern sidewalk there."

The city also approved design and layout modifications to extend sidewalks near Foley High School and Mathis Elementary.

"At the high school, we had a little gap from the parking lot over to Pride. This will connect all the sidewalks in the area," Hellmich said. "Our TAP grant just didn't quite get it done the whole way. So we're just filling in that short gap."

Council continues to assess pedestrian connectivity throughout Foley and has allocated substantial funding for sidewalk improvements in the current budget. In addition to the June 3 items, council approved $1 million for sidewalk projects in the fiscal year budget, which began on Oct. 1, 2023.