ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — It’s a mess now, but officials from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources hope to have the boat ramp on Cotton Bayou open sometime in April.

Work tearing out the old ramp and piers began in mid-February.

“We’re hoping to be open around April 1,” Kevin Anson of ADCNR said. “The contractor is still shooting for that date.” Gillis Construction is doing the work for the state.

Chris Denson with ADCNR said it was time to upgrade the popular ramps near the intersection of Alabama 161 and the beach road.

“The ramp was in bad shape,” Denson said. “The docks were in pretty bad shape and that ramp is about 30 years old. It was definitely in need of some TLC.”

Everything about the boat launch is going to be improved, but there won’t be an increase in parking space. In the busy season, boats have in the past lined Alabama 161 and the road going into the ramp area.

Before last season the city banned parking on the roadways.

“We are not making the parking lot bigger,” Denson said. “It’s about as big as we got for property down there.

“We are replacing the ramps, we are replacing the docks. There’s a little bit of grading going to go on with the parking lot. Right now there’s kind of a hump right at the center of the ramps. That hump’s going to be knocked down a little bit and a little bit of resurfacing on the asphalt parking lot.”

Before there was room on one side to launch a single boat and one side were two could be launched. Now both sides will be 30 feet wide.

“Basically you’ll have room to launch four boats if they play nice,” Denson said. “The finger piers have the flow-through decking. That’s going to help with missing boards after storms and there will be two finger piers at the end to help with boat launching.”

Those piers will be wider to me new regulations that weren’t in place when the original docks were put in. They will meet requirements set out in the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The majority of the money for the $327,000 project will come from the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, which, according to the website, “provides grant funds for the states, District of Columbia and insular areas, fish and wildlife agencies for fish projects, boating access and aquatic education. The program is authorized by the Sports Fishing Restoration Act of 1950. These funds are apportioned to States and Territories based on a formula which includes land area, number of paid license holders, minimums and maximums.”

Excise taxes on fishing equipment, motorboat and small engine fuels, import duties and interest on the collection of those fees are used in the grants.

According to the website, “states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Insular Areas fish & wildlife agencies may apply for grants by contacting the specific WSFR Office or apply online at grants.gov. Grant funds are disbursed to states for approved grants up to 75 percent of the project costs and insular areas up to 100 percent of the project costs.”

Denson says the ADCNR is responsible for maintenance of area state boat launches.

“We actually schedule maintenance for state boat launches in Alabama’s coastal counties,” he said. “As we go through each year we constantly continue to evaluate the existing ramps.”