GULF SHORES, AL – When it comes to what’s wrong with transportation on Pleasure Island and the resort towns of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, it’s pretty simple.

There are only two north-south roads and only two east-west roads. And when you cram 100,000 people or more all trying to move about between the two cities chaos can erupt.

The problems are exacerbated on check out days or Saturday and Sunday mornings in the busy season.

“It’s like we have a Fourth of July type situation every weekend during the season,” Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon said.

In Gulf Shores that means long lines from the east and west on Alabama 182, or beach road, trying to turn north on Alabama 59 to head out of town. Once on Alabama 59 it’s bumper to bumper pretty much to and through Foley as the exodus heads to I-10.

For Orange Beach those checkout times can mean a line of traffic from the Foley Beach Express toll bridge east down Canal Road to Alabama 161, south from there to Alabama 182. Residents have even said they’ve seen traffic backed up on Alabama 182 east all the way to the Perdido Pass Bridge.

Additionally, in Orange Beach, traffic on Canal Road east on check out days or other days of high volume through the Alabama 161-Canal Road intersection, traffic as stacked up as far as four miles east.

It’s a mess at certain times of the day.

And the volume is going to grow as building continues. Brett Robinson has two condo buildings, one in each town, that are more than 20 stories apiece. It will add 80 units in Gulf Shores and 112 in Orange Beach

Two more by other developers, again one in each town, are scheduled to be brought to planning commissions this month. Abaco is a 78-unit, 24-story Gulf-front condominium complex planned for West Beach Boulevard in Gulf Shores.

In Orange Beach the Gulf Coast Opportunity Fund is asking for site plan approval for a 27-story condominium with 166 units and to provide a 15-foot easement for a public beach access. It’s on the east of the Hampton Inn in Orange Beach.

There are also three hotels under construction in Orange Beach and a new 89-room Hampton Inn in Gulf Shores near the city hall complex is about complete.

In Orange Beach, Springhill by Marriot suites is under construction north of the Orange Beach Events Center at the Wharf and will have 140 suites.

East of the Cotton Bayou Beach Access in Orange Beach the Tides hotel is being built where a Days Inn destroyed in Ivan once stood. It will have 60 rooms and is already taking pre-registrations for rooms beginning June 30.

Indigo is underway in west Orange Beach east of Ron Jon’s and it will provide 63 additional rooms in the island’s inventory. Approved but not yet started is the 36-room White Sands hotel which will be between Ron Jon’s and Indigo.

“Everyone is concerned about growth,” Kennon said. “Where are we going with current infrastructure, how do we deal with future growth. Future growth means more cars, more traffic, more beach density.”

Both cities are also reporting an abundance of building permits being issued for single-family homes. Orange Beach has issued 13 permits for new homes since Jan. 1 and Gulf Shores has issued 77 and 52 of those when to D.R. Horton Construction out of Birmingham for houses off of County Road 8 and County Road 6.