Design work begins for Orange Beach boat launch

Design work begins for Orange Beach boat launch

Baldwin County Commissioners, ADCNR Commissioner Chris Blankenship, members of the Baldwin County Legislative Delegation, Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon recently participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for a massive (48 acre) County Intracoastal Boat Launch project to be located just west of the Foley Beach Express on Brown Lane on the northside of the Intracoastal Waterway.
The property acquisition was supported by $7.5 million from the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act. The Baldwin County Commission is investing in the design, engineering and construction of the site.
“This boat launch will be a beautiful project located right on the Intracoastal Waterway that will allow citizens to enjoy fishing, recreational boating and other watersports,’’ said commissioner Billie Jo Underwood.
“This has been in the works for several years,’’ added commissioner Skip Gruber. “This launch site will help citizens of Alabama get on the water and we will continue to work to identify additional water access locations around the county. They’ve got a lot of work to do but we wanted to go ahead and have a ribbon-cutting for it so that we can start going.”
Originally, the project was to have 12 launches, parking for 450 boat trailers and 50 parking spaces for day-use areas and other amenities. Officials say it’s unlikely that such a large launch will be approved. Volkert has been contracted to design the project and will handle the permitting process, Gruber said.
“We’re going to try to get what we can get out of it,” Gruber said. “We gave them the conceptual plan that we had before and hopefully they can stick to what that is.’’
There is no timeline for completion of the project.