ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – Just about any day motorists see other drivers cut across the median at the intersection of County Road 8 and the Foley Beach Express.

A crossover to north almost bumps the intersection and allows drivers heading south to loop back north to Columbia Southern and the Baldwin EMC office. A little further south is another crossover that allows northbound traffic to loop back.

But right across from the Columns apartments there is no access. And motorists entering the Foley Beach Express from County Road 8 heading to Columbia Southern have no paved access.

The result is a dirt path from one side to the other that many say is dangerous. Environmental and Engineering Director Kit Alexander has received complaints and she suspects other local governments have as well.

When the beach express was built, County Road 8 was improved enough to qualify for an intersection, Alexander said.

“There were no accommodations made for County Road 8 since it wasn’t improved,” Alexander said. “So now because of the development the Columns, that apartment complex, and because of the development of County Road 8 there’s the need for people to be able to cross over at that location.

“We’ve been getting phone calls for quite some time.”

Some people are crossing on the dirt path and then driving the wrong direction for a short way, Alexander said.

“When you have a road that has a 55 mph speed limit you want to have some sort of an acceleration lane so that people can merge going the speed limit or near the speed limit instead of just pulling out directly into traffic and in the worst-case scenario pulling out going the wrong way,” she said.

Alexander hopes a solution can be found, but it’s going to be quite complicated to sort out. It involves three government entities and the land in question is privately owned.

“The other thing that’s kind of questionable or needs resolution is who’s jurisdiction that median falls within,” she said. “You’ve got Gulf Shores city limits on the west side, you’ve got city of Orange Beach city limits on the east side and you’ve got Baldwin County in charge of the access to the Foley Beach Express in that location.

“What happened in council was a plea for me to get together with not only the owner of that island, but also Gulf Shores and Baldwin County to talk about possible cost sharing.”

A guard rail has been proposed, but Alexander doesn’t think that’s a viable option.

“That’s not a fix,” she said. “People will probably create another crossover further south. When you deal with traffic or when you having just a blockage and just giving tickets, you need to solve the problem not just prevent people from doing it. You need to respond to what the need is.

“And after I meet with Gulf Shores I’ll meet with Baldwin County and may be the three of us, may we can sit down and talk about what the best options are.”

Alexander would like to see the crossovers in the area reconfigured.

“I’m picturing perhaps a relocation of the crossover that’s located right there at the county road intersection, maybe relocate that to the north so that we can have a southbound turnaround south of that intersection and then move that northbound turnaround a little further to the north so that people can do that sort of loop-de-loop around,” she said.

The wildcard variable is the reaction of the landowner.

“Right now we’re kind of at the drawing board to kind of see what the best solution is and then to follow up with the owner,” Alexander said.

At one time a gas station/store was planned for the land, but the BP oil spill sidetracked those plans. It is owned by a company called Wahoo LLC.

“I think the intent was to put one of those stop-and-go kind of things in there where you can get gas, food, whatever,” Alexander said. “Before the BP incident the engineer who designed the Foley Beach Express, he was representing Wahoo and he came and talked to me about development of that median.”

While it may take time and lots of meetings and discussions, Alexander said the good relationships between Orange Beach, Gulf Shores and Baldwin County will result a solution.

“We can sit here and say people shouldn’t do that, but there’s a need,” she said. “You have to recognize the need and you’ve got to respond to the need. I think putting a little guard rail up there, it may be just a little fix, but we’ve got to figure out how to address that need.”