The City of Gulf Shores has been awarded a $14,404,831 federal grant to fund a major expansion of State Highway 59, U.S. Senator Richard Shelby announced. The money comes through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development (BUILD) Grant Program, which targets infrastructure projects with strong economic development potential.
“This is excellent news for the City of Gulf Shores and our Gulf Coast region,” Shelby said. “The $14.4 million BUILD grant from DOT will enhance the safety and efficiency along Highway 59, as well as alleviating excessive traffic. I look forward to working with my colleagues and Transportation Secretary Chao as we continue to prioritize the infrastructure needs of Alabama and the nation.”
Highway 59 serves as the primary corridor connecting Interstate 10 to the beaches of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, and it regularly sees heavy congestion during peak tourist season and hurricane evacuations. The grant funding will pay for roughly two miles of new southbound lane on Highway 59 between County Road 8 and Alabama State Highway 180, adding a third lane to help relieve that bottleneck.
The project also includes construction of a new pedestrian bridge over the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and shared-use paths along Highway 59 from 20th Avenue to County Road 4. Separately, County Road 6 will be widened from a two-lane road into a divided four-lane boulevard that includes dedicated cycling lanes and a shared-use pedestrian path, along with new two-lane roads, bike lanes and sidewalks elsewhere in the project area.
Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft said the improvements go beyond easing traffic; they’re also about public safety and emergency preparedness in a city that swells with visitors each summer and faces regular hurricane threats.
“We recognize that multimodal transportation infrastructure improvements are critical to the long term sustainability of our community,” Craft said. “This project will provide safe bicycle and pedestrian routes, ease traffic congestion, improve emergency response and expedite the evacuation process for our residents and the millions of visitors we host annually. I would like to thank Senator Richard Shelby and our Congressional Delegation for their assistance with this grant process. This project would not be possible without their unwavering support.”
The BUILD Grant Program, a competitive federal funding source, has become an important tool for coastal Alabama communities looking to keep pace with rapid tourism-driven growth without placing the entire financial burden of major infrastructure projects on local taxpayers.