GULF SHORES — While crews are still knee deep in the Gulf Shores sidewalk project from the beach road to Fort Morgan Road, plans are already being made on the second part of that project to the foot of the Intracoastal Waterway bridge.

On May 9 the city council agreed to pay DMD engineering about $62,000 for the engineering on the second phase.

“If we can get him under contract and get this designed, as we’re breaking for the summer, we can bid this through the late summer and have this contract hopefully ready to go for the fall and winter,” Public Works Director Mark Acreman said. “It would allow us as we wrap up one project and roll right into the next phase. And have continuous sidewalk construction and minimize the impact to the community and get this project completed as soon as possible.”

Acreman said the first part of Phase 1 to Windmill Road he hoped would be finished by Memorial Day is done with plans to begin finishing up that phase as soon as the busy summer season is over.

“We’re actually jumping ahead to do something we were planning in August,” he said. “We’re going to do just a little segment between Waterville and Sawgrass Landing because there’s nothing there. There’s an existing sidewalk on the west side but there’s nothing on the east side.

“We at least trying to get that squeezed in before the Hangout Festival. They are working on that right now.”

The one hold out on the first phase will be the widening of the bridge just north of Windmill Ridge.

“The reason we’re going to split up the bridge project is it’s estimated to take about nine months to complete that,” Acreman said. “If we split it into two different phases, one phase through the fall and winter of 2016-17 and do the next phase through the winter of 2017-18 and it will probably be the last thing completed.”

The roadway will be down to two lanes during both phases of the bridge widening, Acreman said.

“It’s still going to be a challenge in the winter but at least the traffic numbers are so much lower in the winter,” he said. “Once all that work has been completed the DOT has said they will come back and overlay Highway 59 and put new asphalt down.”

Crews will follow the same plan on the Phase 2, working during the slow season and taking a break during times with lots of folks in town.

“If we can get this bid out we hope to start this around October and hopefully work like we did this year,” Acreman said. “We worked a little bit through spring break. We broke on the busiest weeks of spring break to minimize traffic impacts. We hope maybe we can get through with this by Memorial Day of next year and then have all of the sidewalks in.”

Acreman estimates the entire project from the beach to the bridge will cost just under $3 million for sidewalks, landscaping, the bridge widening and improving access points at businesses along the roadway.

On the Fort Morgan south to the beach phase Gulf Shores received an 80 percent Transportation Alternative Program grant for the sidewalk and landscaping.

The city will have to foot the bill for the estimated $700,000 for the bridge portion.

Phase 2 from Fort Morgan Road to the foot of the Intracoastal Waterway bridge is estimated to cost about $1 million of the $3 million total.

“Today we don’t have any grants (for Phase 2) but we are applying for them every year,” he said. “We hope to have some.”