Rising costs have thrown a wrench in plans for two major Gulf Shores improvements — both Coastal Gateway Park and a part of the new Waterway Bridge project.

Following public concern, city officials recently discussed their plans for the 127-acre park off County Road 8, which has now been delayed due to the financial burden becoming much higher than originally expected when leveraged against the current construction taking place in Gulf Shores.

"We are still working through the master plan," Director of Recreation and Cultural Affairs Grant Brown explained in regards to Coastal Gateway Park at a Monday, June 3, council meeting. "We're still working through phase 1. We should have the complete phase 1 design done by this fall, but we have run into a funding situation where we do not have our first phase funded, so we do not know when we will be able to begin construction."

"The first phase, phase 1A is what we're calling it, included the drainage necessary to add a roadway through that piece of property, which will go from Coastal Gateway Boulevard all the way to County Road 6 or Oak Road East. It would have trails around the lake, a pool and a pool area, with additional amenities. It was about a $15 million project, and unfortunately, with our construction projects that we have ongoing — that are vital to the community — we are running short on capital money. It'll be a few years before we can start the major construction of the amenities. We're still working on a plan to have connectivity through roadway systems and be able to have some use of that property, but at this point we do not know when we will be able to build the full-blown amenities at the park."

This development on the park continues the trend of rising costs impacting the area, coming just days after bids opened for a section of the Waterway Bridge project in Gulf Shores (an access road off Foley Beach Express south to the Cotton Creek Drive intersection) on Friday, May 31, now also well above government officials' estimations. ALDOT projected this portion to cost between $21.6 million and $26.4 million, yet John G. Walton Construction was the low bidder at $29.9 million, $3.5 million above the original high-end estimate.

Mayor Robert Craft said Gulf Shores plans to finish whatever projects are started; however, on what timeline remains to be seen.

"We've run into so many price increases on everything that we've budgeted and bid years ago," Craft said, specifically in reference to Coastal Gateway Park. "The funding was so slow to arrive. It's particularly on a Restore grant, stuff that the price kept going up and the funds didn't change that much, and we have to finish them once we start a project like that. We have to finish it, so we had to cut back. It's unfortunate, just the way the world works with pricing and budgets. We just couldn't do it all right now, but it's not gone away."

"Hopefully, the economic conditions will improve and some of the pricing will stabilize. Hopefully it'll go down, but maybe it'll just quit going up. It could be better off then. I apologize for the delays."