GULF SHORES, AL – A two-phase project to widen a bridge and sidewalks on Alabama 59 in Gulf Shores will begin as soon as the 45th Annual Shrimp Festival packs up and leaves town.
The bridge, …
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GULF SHORES, AL – A two-phase project to widen a bridge and sidewalks on Alabama 59 in Gulf Shores will begin as soon as the 45th Annual Shrimp Festival packs up and leaves town.
The bridge, just north of the Original Oyster House complex at Windmill Ridge Road, spans a creek that feeds into Little Lagoon. Bids were opened on Aug. 11 and Pope Contracting was the only conforming bidder.
“This is widening the bridge on the east and west sides to accommodate for eight-foot wide pedestrian pathways on both sides of the bridge,” Public Works Director Mark Acreman said. “This is a bid not to exceed the amount of $970,000.”
Work will be completed during the next two off seasons.
“The first phase will be the west side of the bridge and will begin after the 2016 Shrimp Fest and end by March 1,” according to a city memo. “The second phase will be the east side of the bridge and will begin after the 2017 Shrimp Fest and end by March 1, 2018.”
Lane closures and traffic delays are expected during a portion of the project.
“That’s why we’re really focusing on the winter time because we may have to constrict 59 down to two lanes of traffic, one lane in each direction,” Acreman said. “We will minimize that to the greatest extent possible and that’s why we’re splitting this over two years.
“There’s no easy way around this, but once it’s finished it’s going to be worth the pain.”
Currently the sides of the bridge are narrow and can be harrowing for bicyclists and pedestrians, Acreman said.
“It’s about nine or 10 inches above the travel lane so it’s not even your standard six-inch curb,” he said. “Riding a bike or going down it is a little scary. We can make it safer and easier for pedestrians to cross that bridge.
“There will be a barrier lane now between the pedestrian and travel lanes on the outside edges of the bridge. It will be very similar to the Little Lagoon Pass bridge. We’re going to have a decorative rail on the outside. There’s going to be about a four-concrete barrier.”
Traffic will be affected during times when a crane is on site, Acreman said.
“There will be approximately 90 days, not consecutively, where we may have to close as many as two lanes to bring in the crane to set the pilings and to set the deck,” he said. “That’s not going to be a consistent 90 days. There will an initial driving of the depth pilings and the crane will be there for about a month. We’ll bring the crane back for about 45 days in the row when we will build that.”
Mayor Robert Craft told Acreman to make sure there is plenty of notice of when traffic flow will be constricted because of the bridge work.
Keep us informed of your projected schedule to make sure that we’re aware of when this is going to be closed and we can let the public know,” Craft said. “It’s going to be a mess because even during the winter we’re still busy.
“That’s going to be a good project that’s going to affect our quality of life for 90 days and we’re going to hold you to that 90 days.”
The bridge widening is just part of a project to have eight-foot sidewalks from the beach road to the Intracoastal Waterway bridge.
“It’s about a third of the cost,” Acreman said of the bridge. “Phase 1 is about a third and phase three is about a third. It represents about a $1 million from Fort Morgan north, a million from Fort Morgan south and then the bridge and some for landscaping, fencing and irrigation.”
According to a city memo the total budget for the Alabama 59 sidewalk improvements from the Intracoastal Waterway bridge to the beach $3.5 million with approximately $1 million dollars being provided by ALDOT grant funding.
