A multi-million dollar rebuild of Baltimore Street in Mobile is finished, closing out roughly 18 months of construction that replaced the roadway along with much of the infrastructure beneath and beside it.
“This has been a long time coming,” said Mobile City Council President CJ Small.
For residents along the street, the completed work registered as more than a resurfacing job.
“It’s a great day to be a resident of Baltimore street,” said Mary Williams, who lives in the area.
What the $6 million covered
The roughly $6 million project replaced the street itself, the sidewalks and the sewage infrastructure, and included new mailboxes along the block. Work ran for about a year and a half.
Small said pushing the project forward has been a priority since he joined the council. “This has been my heart since day 1 on council,” he said.
How it came together
Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson credited Small with assembling funding from several directions, describing a process that moved from city money to county Pay-Go funds to the utility side.
“Councilman Small had a vision for rebuilding this, probably him alone other than with a few residents. But he had persevered to the point where he was able to get the city to put the money in, he was able to convince Pay-Go the county commissioner Ludgood, then they turned to Bud McCroy at MAWSS and that’s exactly how it happens,” Stimpson said.
That layering of city, county and utility money is a common structure for street rebuilds in Mobile, where a full reconstruction means water and sewer lines get replaced at the same time the pavement does — work that falls under the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System rather than the city’s paving budget.
Betting on a ripple effect
Stimpson framed the investment as an attempt to halt a slide in the surrounding neighborhood.
“It really has to make everybody feel good to realize the decline of this neighborhood was in, had you not done something like that to really just give it a boost, it would continue probably to decline. It’s a big deal,” he said.
He said he expects the improvements to lift property values and encourage further investment nearby.
“I can’t help but believe all of the property values on this street this will be the starting of a fire that will spread out from this area. Hopefully, we’ll see a revitalization in this geographic area,” Stimpson said.