ORANGE BEACH — A redo of the Boggy Point boat launch at the east end of Marina Road most likely won’t mean an expansion of the ramps or parking, but state officials say all options will be considered during the design phase.
The Funding
Marine Resources Division Director Kevin Anson said every option will be explored during the first refresh of the launch in 20 years.
The state is using money from the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, or GoMESA, which distributes revenue from oil and natural gas leases in the Gulf to the five states touching those waters.
The Boggy Point launch is receiving nearly $3 million for the reworking of the popular facility, in an area short on space for boater access. It is one of several projects funded by GoMESA’s $52 million in Alabama funding for this cycle. The City of Orange Beach is also set to receive $1.5 million for a clubhouse at the city’s shooting range on Russian Road.
Why Now
“We estimate generally we get around 20 to 25 years out of a ramp, you know, down in coastal Alabama because of storms and just the salt water and what it does to the infrastructure,” Anson said. “It’s time for a major renovation.”
That lifespan is shorter than an inland facility would see, and the reason is the operating environment. Saltwater accelerates corrosion of any embedded steel, storm surge repeatedly loads and scours the structure, and tidal flow works continuously at the material beneath the ramp.
The Timeline
Boaters should not expect construction anytime soon.
“It’s going to take us a few months to come up with some plans that we feel comfortable with to submit to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” Anson said. “Then the permitting process is going to take approximately a year. And then once we get the permits, we’ll go ahead with construction.”
That sequence puts a construction start well over a year out. Corps permitting timelines are the controlling factor in nearly every in-water coastal project, and they are largely outside a state agency’s ability to accelerate.
The Design Constraints
The finished facility will most likely look much like what is there now in terms of parking spaces and the number of ramps, though designers will examine several options for making better use of the available space.
“We’ve investigated or will be investigating moving potentially the ramps,” Anson said. “If we decide to stay there, we’ll use that cofferdam type concept. Or, if we move it to the north or we move it to the south, that might change what that design looks like as far as the ramps.”
Each direction carries a penalty. “But to the south, we have a sandbar, so it’s relatively shallow, so we’d have to consider dredging there periodically,” Anson said. “And then if we move it to the north, we’d actually lose that row of parking that’s on the north side of the boat ramp that we currently have and don’t know if we’d get that back by reconfiguring elsewhere on the property. But we are looking at those things to try to maximize the utility of the property.”
Periodic dredging is a recurring operational cost rather than a one-time construction expense, which is why a shallow southern alignment is unattractive even if it works on paper.
Why It Can’t Simply Get Bigger
Land surrounding the boat launch is mostly wetlands or private property, and enlarging the launch area could raise additional permitting issues.
“Immediately to the north of the existing parking area, it’s mostly wetland, so we would have to fill in wetlands,” Anson said. “And even if we did, we just kind of did a quick sketch, and really the only parking we’d be able to accommodate there is single vehicles. Since it’s a boating access place, that would not be conducive.”
The distinction matters more than it may appear. A boat ramp’s parking requirement is not measured in cars but in truck-and-trailer combinations, which occupy roughly twice the length of a standard space. Parking that can only accommodate single vehicles is of limited use at a launch.
What Will Change
In the end, Anson said, the pavers in the current parking lot will be replaced with asphalt, and new ramps are coming to Boggy Point.
Part of the underlying problem is the tidal flow through Perdido Pass slowly working at the support beneath the underwater ramps.
“The pavers that are in the parking lot currently, they’re starting to subside in some areas and crack as they subside,” Anson said. “There’s been some scouring underneath the ramps, and so we’ve had a piece of one of the ramps break off that we had to tend to because it was jutting up and people were hitting it with the engine.”
A broken ramp section striking outboard lower units is not a cosmetic problem. It is the kind of defect that damages boats and creates liability, and it is the clearest sign that a facility has reached the end of its service life.
What Boaters Should Expect
For now, Boggy Point remains in service. Design work is the immediate next step, followed by Corps submission and roughly a year of permitting before construction begins.
South Alabama News will report the design decision and construction schedule as the Marine Resources Division releases them.