FAIRHOPE, Alabama — Fairhope’s growing network of sidewalks and multi-use trails is about to extend further up U.S. 98, after the city secured a $400,000 federal grant to build a two-mile path connecting the Rock Creek subdivision area to Alabama 104.
Second try was the charm
The funding comes through the Federal Highway Administration’s Transportation Alternatives Program, which is administered locally by the Alabama Department of Transportation. Fairhope’s first attempt at the grant in 2013 was turned down, but after the City Council voted in March to resubmit the application, the second try succeeded. The council gave final approval this week, authorizing Mayor Tim Kant to sign off on the agreement with the state highway department.
City picks up part of the cost
As a condition of the award, Fairhope agreed to cover 20 percent of the total project cost, along with engineering, design and inspection fees, adding up to roughly $100,000 in local funding. According to the city’s grant-writing consultant, Stacy McKean, some preliminary work on the project is already underway.
An 8-foot path with a boardwalk and bridge
The new route will be an 8-foot-wide asphalt multi-use path stretching just over two miles, beginning at Rock Creek Parkway and running south along U.S. 98 until it reaches Alabama 104. From there, it will tie into the roughly 30-mile Eastern Shore Trail system along Scenic 98 and North Section Street near the Fairhope Flower Clock. The path’s design includes a 150-foot boardwalk and an 80-foot pedestrian bridge crossing Fly Creek, just north of the entrance to the Woodlands neighborhood.
A new route for hundreds of homes
The project stands to benefit residents of the roughly 600-lot Rock Creek subdivision as well as nearly 100 homes in the neighboring Woodlands community, giving both areas a car-free connection into downtown Fairhope and the wider Eastern Shore trail network. City officials have also pointed to a more everyday benefit: the path will give residents a safer walking and biking route to the Publix shopping center along U.S. 98, an area currently used mostly by drivers.
With the agreement now finalized, the city is expected to move the project through design and permitting before construction of the new path segment gets underway along the busy U.S. 98 corridor.