Mobile city and county leaders prepared to put $3 million behind one of the region’s biggest employers, with a vote set on an agreement to improve road access to Austal USA’s shipyard.
The Mobile County Commission was scheduled to vote Oct. 25 on a project agreement among the county, the City of Mobile and Austal USA. Each government would contribute $1.5 million, with Austal responsible for any costs above that. The work includes new access roads and turn lanes at intersections near the shipyard — improvements that would also ease traffic to the nearby AIDT Maritime Training Center.
In its public notice, the county argued the spending serves a clear public purpose: higher property values, increased tax revenue, additional economic activity and new jobs.
The stakes are substantial. Austal USA was developing, constructing and equipping a new steel-hull vessel construction operation expected to employ at least 3,300 full-time workers at an average annual wage of roughly $57,000, with about $100 million in capital investment in the facility.