Gulf Shores, Ala. – (OBA) – When all is said and done, Gulf Shores officials hope to have a south bypass of Canal Road behind the Gulf Pines neighborhood. But until it gets built – and there’s no current timetable on the project – the city is improving streets through the neighborhood for a detour around the 90-degree turn from East Second Street to Canal Road near Tacky Jacks.

“That’s being designed now,” Construction Manager Clint Colvin said of the bypass. “We’ve got like a preliminary layout. For that one, there’s one piece of property that we have to get a property swap with the state park. They have to give us a little piece, so we’re swapping with them. That’s in the works now and that’s kind of what’s holding that up.”

The detour is needed because the city plans to shut down that corner to build a long-sought-after and delayed pedestrian bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway. When two bids came in to build the bridge and extensive ramps leading up to it, the $46 million and $52 million bids were at least double what the city had budgeted.

“Either we completely redesign the thing or we kind of take what we have and do an abbreviated version,” Colvin said. “It’s not going to be what we bid out, basically. There will definitely be some changes. It’s still all up in the air about what all we can afford.”

City officials said Gulf Shores is now a year behind on the project and hopes to get the “abbreviated” version out for bid before the year is out and is hoping it will be completed sometime in 2026.

One of the most expensive items on the bridge were swirling ramps leading up to the bridge and those will likely be put on hold until the city finds a way to pay for them.

“We always had elevators in there but we also had the big ramps to get down,” Colvin said. “The way they were designed those ramps were very expensive. That’s probably going to have to get cut where you only have elevators and you have to have stairs for emergency access in case the power goes out. Some of the options we’ve looked at do have ramps, so it still could possibly have ramps. Whatever we design we to have it to where we can at ramps later for sure.”

Until all that is worked traffic going to and from Orange Beach on Canal Road will be rerouted through the neighborhood. The city did award a $1.8 million bid to Asphalt Services to make improvements to East Third Street from Canal Road to East 22nd Avenue and from there to East Second Street.

“It has to be per ALDOT standards and so it has to widen it out maybe two feet just because the lanes are kind of narrow,” Colvin said. “There’s going to be a traffic signal at 22nd Avenue and another traffic signal at Third Street at 24th Avenue. Then repaving and a little bit of widening and some sidewalks.”

The Canal Road and East Third Street intersection will become a three-way stop and a cul-de-sac will be built west of there near the old Frith’s Bat Shop, shutting down the 90-degree turn. New traffic lights will be at East Third Street and East 24th Avenue and at East 22nd Avenue and East Second Street. Improvements will include adding a left-turn lane at the intersection of East 22nd Avenue and East Second Street.

Once the detour project begins, Colvin said it will take about six months to complete.

The bridge is needed because widening State Route 59 south from the Target Shopping Center to Fort Morgan will take away pedestrian access across the Intracoastal Waterway.