The Fairhope City Council has signed off on emergency funding to fix a section of sea wall that collapsed after Hurricane Zeta along South Beach Park, one of the busiest stretches of shoreline near the Fairhope Pier area.
The emergency appropriation totals about $22,000 and comes from the city’s general fund. Council President Jack Burrell said roughly 220 feet of shoreline was damaged by Zeta, and city crews will handle the repair themselves — placing about 220 tons of large rock as rip rap, then backfilling with dirt to protect the bank. He expected the work to wrap up within about two weeks.
Racing the Calendar and the Bay
Burrell framed the timing as deliberate: completing the stopgap repair ahead of hurricane season, with a longer-term fix still pending. “We are losing land here — we don’t want to lose any more to the bay,” he said, explaining the urgency of protecting what remains.
A complete replacement of the park’s aging sea wall is expected to be folded into the city’s $6.2 million “Working Waterfront” grant project funded through the RESTORE Act, which draws on BP oil spill settlement money. That project is still in its public input phase.
More Work Nearby
Just south of the sea wall at Magnolia Beach, shoreline trees were eroded by Hurricanes Sally and Zeta the previous year. The council was also weighing an additional $17,000 to replenish sand there — an approach that has not always held up in the past.
Separately from the emergency spending, the city planned to restore utility service to the Fairhope Pier later that week.