GULF SHORES — Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism’s Winter Showcase Series on Gulf Shores updates had a fully-booked crowd with over 80 attendees.
Grant Brown, director of recreation and …
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GULF SHORES — Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism’s Winter Showcase Series on Gulf Shores updates had a fully-booked crowd with over 80 attendees.
Grant Brown, director of recreation and cultural affairs and public information officer for Gulf Shores, spoke at the Feb. 11 showcase on a variety of municipal projects and general updates. He also focused on some of the ongoing transportation projects, such as the Gulf Shores International Airport terminal expansion, which is set to be complete May 2027, and the Hwy. 59 widening project, with phase two — three southbound lanes from Target to Fort Morgan Road — set to be paved by this summer.
One of the bigger projects is the upcoming Gulf Shores Pedestrian Bridge, which is nearly 50% complete.
With the third southbound lane of traffic coming to Hwy. 59, a new pedestrian lane is needed for crossing the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). After working through previous designs that came in over budget, the current design is within budget and on track for completion in November this year.
Brown said the area surrounding the base of the pedestrian bridge on either side of the ICW will be used as a city event space for things like a Christmas tree lighting ceremony or projecting a movie on the elevator tower wall for a movie night in the park.
As a primarily walking, biking and golf cart-friendly Waterway District, the bridge will be used as an opportunity to have an “iconic area uptown, on the waterway.”
One traffic issue that has come up with the new pedestrian bridge is rerouting Canal Road, which previously ended in a 90-degree turn where the southern elevator tower will be. The current detour runs along Meyer Park.
“That’s a temporary detour,” Brown said, “but when we say ‘temporary,’ we’re probably five or six years with this traffic pattern.”
The long-term plan is to reroute Canal Road to run behind the Gulf Shores Utilities Plant and connect to East 2nd Street somewhere near Dolphin Avenue.
Brown said the state will build this roadway and that the city is working with the state on property swaps for right-of-way. He said that it could take 10 years to work out.
“Also, the state has not yet acquired the funding to do that road, and it’s an expensive road because it goes through wetlands and it will have to be elevated,” he said. “So, it might be longer than six years that this detour will be in effect.”
The city has recently focused on improving pedestrian safety by adding stop signs, traffic signals, sidewalks and additional on-street parking in the Gulf Pines neighborhood in attempts to slow traffic in the area.
The detour is “working better than we anticipated,” Brown said.
Another new bridge underway for Gulf Shores is the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) bridge project to alleviate traffic on Foley Beach Express. The new bridge is set to be open by Memorial Day.
This bridge will split from Foley Beach Express just south of County Road 8, or Coastal Gateway Boulevard. The southbound bridge will cross the ICW and connect to Canal Road at the roundabout between Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.
The Foley Beach Express Bridge, located at The Wharf, will become northbound only.
One thing both Gulf Shores and Orange Beach agree on, according to Brown and Orange Beach City Administrator Ford Handley, who spoke at the Orange Beach updates showcase, is their concern with the bridges being northbound and southbound only.
Brown said the new route will be inconvenient to future Gulf Shores High School students going to the new high school on County Road 8, as those who will drive to school on the expressway from south of the ICW will have to pass the Gulf Shores bridge to go to the northbound bridge at The Wharf.
The northbound/southbound split in Foley Beach Express is just south of the new high school, which is set to open for students in August.
The new building has been constructed more like “a junior college or college” rather than a high school and is set to have a 702-seat theater, a media center and additional athletic facilities, among other amenities, but Brown said the emphasis for the construction is not on current high schoolers.
“It’s really about the elementary school,” he said. “In the elementary school, we’ve got about 1,200 kids and they’re in a building that was really designed for about 700 students. Kids have lunch starting at 10:30 in the morning, and they’ll have lunch all the way to 3 o’clock in the afternoon.”
Currently, Brown said, the plan is to move the high schoolers into the new building, move middle schoolers to the current high school building — which is “going to be probably one of the best middle schools anywhere” with two gyms and numerous CTE classrooms — and elementary schoolers will blend into both the current elementary and middle school buildings.
Brown also spoke on a variety of city updates such as environmental projects from the Gulf Coast Center for Ecotourism and Sustainability (EcoCenter), which opened last year, and the recently approved Laguna Cove Park project.
Laguna Cove Park will preserve 51 of the 53 acres, which includes dune and wetland habitats, for restoration and conservation. This project should be completed in six to eight months.
Municipal first responders were also highlighted in the showcase, including new facilities such as the Justice Center, which is on track for completion mid-summer, and the Fire Training Facility, set to be completed this year.
“We live in one of the safest communities, pretty much anywhere,” Brown said.
