For now, it’s mostly geese and ducks paddling around the lake at Langan Park, but Mobile city officials say that could soon change. An 18-month dredging project aimed at restoring the popular park’s lake is expected to get underway later this year, with the goal of eventually opening the water to kayaks and canoes.
“It’ll be able to be boated through, so you’ll be able to kayak and canoe in there,” said Jennifer Greene, Mobile’s Director of Programs and Project Management. “Dredging will clear away some of the nuisance algae.”
City officials say decades of sediment buildup have left the lake shallow and choked with algae, limiting its use for recreation and hurting the health of the small ecosystem that surrounds it. The upcoming project is designed to reverse that, removing accumulated muck from the lake bed so the water can support boating and healthier plant and fish life once again.
According to Greene, the bidding process for the project is set to begin at the end of summer, with construction crews expected to move onto the site and begin work by the end of the year. Once underway, crews will spend a year and a half removing sediment that has washed into the lake over time from the surrounding watershed.
The scale of the work is substantial. “It’s a large project, 350,000 cubic yards of sediment is going to be removed from the lake,” Greene said. That volume of material, once removed, is expected to leave the lake with an average depth of three to five feet, a significant improvement over its current shallow, silted condition.
The dredging project is part of a broader, multi-year effort by the city to address sedimentation problems that begin well upstream of Langan Park. Greene said crews have spent the past several years working in Twelve Mile Creek, which feeds into the lake, to reduce the amount of sediment and debris flowing downstream into the park.
“We’re already seeing a 70% reduction in sedimentation coming down in there. It’s very successful,” Greene said of the upstream work.
Langan Park, one of Mobile’s largest and most heavily used green spaces, draws residents for walking, picnicking, disc golf and other outdoor activities throughout the year. City leaders hope that restoring the lake will add another recreational draw to the park, giving residents a new way to get out on the water without leaving the city.
Officials have not yet released a detailed construction timeline or a total cost estimate for the dredging work, both of which are expected to become clearer once bidding concludes later this year. In the meantime, the lake will remain open to wildlife and park visitors as the city finalizes plans to begin the long-awaited restoration.