GULF SHORES, Ala. – Little Lagoon pass on West

Beach Boulevard has been a hub of activity in the past few

months.

From the required dredging to BP sifting sand

dredged to remove tarballs and hopes for park improvements,

officials have hopes of many improvements within the next year.

Perhaps the most exciting project will be the

replacement of the bridge over the pass and some improvements to

pass itself.  Officials hope work can begin later this fall on the

bridge. At about the same time, beach nourishment west of the pass

is also tentatively scheduled.

“It’s in the process right now for

redevelopment of the whole pass and that’s a new bridge and I don’t

know if it will be reconfigured,” Brandan Franklin, Chief

Building/Environmental official for Gulf Shores said. “I haven’t

seen the final plans yet.”

But right now the Alabama Department of

Transportation can’t get into particulars of what the changes might

be, pending the result of an environmental study on the proposed

project.

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“In this environmental process, a no build is still an option that

we have to review,” Vince Calametti, Division 9 Chief Engineer,

said. “So I can’t really formally say that anything is going to be

done, but that’s the process I’m in.

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“Our goals are to, of course, replace the bridge, replace the

seawall, to look at sand management. And that would mean to put

sand where it is needed the most.”

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If the site passes environmentally, Calametti hopes to see work

begin in earnest in October.

“Once we’re through with the environmental

process, that study will be finished and the design will be

completed,” Calametti said. “I’d like to let it (for bids) in

September so that the contractor starts right after Shrimp

Festival.”

The state hopes to have its first public

hearing in mid-March. Currently, according to a report on the

Little Lagoon Preservation Society’s website from a meeting with

Calametti, there are five options for modifications to the

pass.

First there would be a temporary bridge, just

north of the existing bridge.

Of the most interesting options, one plan

calls for the pass to be slighter wider, if the plan is approved,

with a better defined channel. Also, there will be no bridge

supports in the channel itself, but on either side of the pass

instead.

A new feature, according to one of the plans,

would be sediment traps that would direct the sand to common areas

and make removal easier.

“We have a coastal engineer who is looking at

water transfer, water quality,” Calametti said. “We don’t think the

pass will ever be maintenance free, but we hope to improve the

efficiency so we don’t have to dredge as much, so that will be one

of the processes we look at.”

The ultimate goal is to increase circulation

of the water in the lagoon.

“What we do, as Little Lagoon Perseveration

Society is we try to keep water quality as top-notch, pristine as

possible in the lagoon,” Dennis Hatfield of LLPS said. “It has to

be open.”

State involvement with pass in 1991 by

homeowners west of Little Lagoon pass that said they were

experiencing erosion because of the jetties at the past. After a

while, the homeowners dropped out of the lawsuit and it was taken

up by the LLPS.

The case made it all the way to the Alabama

Supreme which ruled the Alabama Department of Transportation had to

keep the pass dredged to allow water to flow freely in and out of

Little Lagoon.

ALSO AT THE LAGOON

During the oil spill, a berm was constructed

across the mouth of Little Lagoon Pass to keep the oil out of the

lagoon. It worked as far as the lagoon was concerned, but dredging

in the pass revealed some tarballs.

“That settled and the sand just covered it

up,” Franklin said. “While they were dredging that sand out, you’d

have chunks of tarballs.

“So what we asked them to do, instead of

spreading contaminated sand on the beach, stockpile it in one area,

let it dry and bring the sifters in.”

That activity took up most of the back parking

lot at the city part at the lagoon.

Franklin hopes to also get some grant money to

make improvements to the park there.

"text-decoration: none;">BP set aside $1 billion and it is to be

used for grants through the National Resource Damage Assessment

program through NOAA. Each of the five coast states plus the

Department of Interior and NOAA are each allotted $100

million.

"text-decoration: none;">Gulf Shores has submitted grants for five

projects including for Little Lagoon Park.

"text-decoration: none;"> “We’ve submitted plans and

the request, close to $2 million to actually go in and enhance that

parking that’s there, put the parking back on the north side that

BP’s been using,” Franklin said. “Put board walks out into the

Lagoon and another restroom facility in that area.”