The city of Mobile has been awarded $555,092 in state transportation funding to extend the Three Mile Creek Greenway westward toward the University of South Alabama Medical Center, adding a new stretch to one of the city’s signature outdoor recreation projects.
The money comes from the Alabama Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternative Program, a federally backed fund that supports biking, walking and other non-motorized transportation projects across the state. The new segment will run roughly 3,300 linear feet, picking up where the original greenway construction ended along West Ridge Road, and will include solar-powered lighting to allow for safer use in early morning and evening hours.
The existing trail currently runs along the north side of Three Mile Creek, beginning at Tricentennial Park and continuing to West Ridge Road. The extension will push the path closer to the medical campus, giving students, hospital staff and nearby residents a more direct connection to the growing trail network.
City leaders pursued the funding last year, when Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson and City Councilman Fred Richardson sponsored a resolution authorizing an application for the ALDOT grant. Under the terms of the award, the city will contribute $138,773 in local matching funds to complete the project.
The grant adds to a larger pool of money already committed to greenway construction in Mobile. Last month, the Alabama Gulf Coast Recovery Council, which oversees the distribution of BP oil spill settlement funds, voted to award the city $9.7 million for the broader Mobile Greenway Initiative. City officials say the ALDOT award will work alongside that funding to keep the trail expansion moving forward.
The Three Mile Creek Greenway is part of a broader push by the city to build out a connected network of biking and walking paths throughout Mobile. Officials have said the trail system is intended to ease traffic congestion in nearby neighborhoods, give residents and visitors more places to exercise outdoors, and boost property values along the corridor. The long-term goal, first envisioned decades ago, is to create a roughly 12-mile recreational path along Three Mile Creek linking the University of South Alabama, Langan Park, downtown Mobile and Mobile Bay.
“I want to thank ALDOT for helping Mobile make this 35-year-old vision a reality,” Stimpson said in announcing the award. “This new trail encourages fitness, beautifies a vital waterway and enhances our quality of life. Our goal is to link neighborhoods, businesses and residents across Mobile and educate our citizens on one of our precious waterways.”
City officials have not released a construction timeline for the new segment, but the addition of state and BP settlement funding gives the greenway project two major funding sources heading into the next phase of design and construction.