MOBILE, Ala. — Preliminary work has begun on a construction project that will temporarily close a major entrance to Mobile’s Brookley Aeroplex this fall.
The project will close Michigan Avenue, which provides a direct connection from Interstate 10 to the Brookley campus. A larger roundabout will replace the current “T” intersection where Broad Street ends at Michigan.
Two Roundabouts, One Airport Opening
Since early this year, officials at the Mobile Airport Authority have been discussing the need for two traffic circles leading to the new Mobile International Airport, which is expected to open in early 2027.
The first tied the airport entrance road to Perimeter Road. Perimeter Road was closed in mid-June and reopened ahead of schedule in late August.
The Michigan Avenue project is bigger and potentially more disruptive.
Timeline
At the authority’s regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, acting executive director Adam Hays said preliminary work began Monday. Construction work will begin next week, he said, and a closure is likely to start sometime in October.
Details on the start of the closure and its expected duration will be announced later.
The first phase of the work involves relocating power lines and other utilities, Hays said. Utility relocation almost always precedes roadway reconstruction, and it is frequently the phase most vulnerable to schedule slippage, since it depends on coordination with multiple utility owners.
Why Not Keep the Intersection Open
Hays said the authority had considered the feasibility of keeping the intersection open during construction, but it would have caused the project to take longer and cost more.
“It was kind of a no brainer,” he said. “We had to go ahead and shut it all down.”
Building a roundabout inside a live intersection is possible but expensive. It generally requires phased construction with temporary alignments, additional traffic control, more work zones and extended duration — all of which raise cost and prolong the period during which drivers are navigating a shifting construction site. A full closure compresses the disruption into a shorter, more predictable window.
Getting the Roundabout Done Before the Airport Opens
Hays reiterated the view that it is crucial to have the roundabout in place when the new airport opens, so that patrons do not immediately run into traffic jams.
“This intersection is critical for the opening of our airport as well as to serve Brookley as a whole,” he said.
The sequencing argument is straightforward. Moving commercial passenger service from the existing airport on Airport Boulevard to Brookley will substantially change traffic patterns in the area, concentrating arriving and departing passengers, rental car traffic, rideshare vehicles and employee trips onto roads currently sized for the aeroplex’s industrial and aviation tenants.
A roundabout handles continuous, unevenly distributed flow more efficiently than a signalized or stop-controlled T intersection, and it eliminates the signal cycle that creates queuing when volumes spike — which at an airport they do, around arrival and departure banks rather than evenly through the day.
Access During the Closure
During the closure, Hays said, Broad Street will continue to provide access from the north and Perimeter Road will be open to the south.
That leaves the campus reachable from both directions, but it removes the direct I-10 connection that Michigan Avenue provides. Drivers accustomed to exiting the interstate and heading straight into Brookley should expect to use an alternate route for the duration.
Brookley hosts a substantial daily workforce, including major aerospace operations, which means the closure affects commuters as well as visitors. The authority has said it will announce the closure start date and expected duration later.
The Larger Picture at Brookley
The roadway work is one piece of a broader transformation at the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley, where the new Mobile International Airport terminal is under construction for an expected early 2027 opening. The Airport Authority has also been redeveloping adjacent property it acquired north of Interstate 10.
Updates on the Michigan Avenue closure are expected from the Mobile Airport Authority as the schedule firms up.