MOBILE, Ala. — A skateboard park that has been promised to Mobile skaters for more than two years could finally break ground after the City Council considers a construction contract at its next meeting.
Council members are expected to take up a resolution authorizing a $320,667 contract with Aeiker Construction Corp. to build the long-anticipated skate park at Public Safety Memorial Park, located on Airport Boulevard across from Foosackly’s. Because the meeting falls near the Veterans Day holiday, the council’s regular session has been shifted to a Wednesday morning start time.
The project traces back to at least 2012, when city officials first began floating plans for a skate park at the site. Former Mayor Sam Jones once pledged that construction would begin before the end of 2013, but the project stalled for years before finally winning council approval to proceed this past summer.
Under the current plan, crews would complete site work and grading, build a required retention pond, pour foundations and concrete flatwork, and install pre-cast concrete skateboard features. If the contract is approved, the project is expected to wrap up by late spring.
City engineering officials say the contract includes a contingency allowance not built into earlier cost estimates, intended to cover unexpected complications — such as poor soil conditions — without forcing the contractor to halt work and come back to the city for additional funding mid-project. Officials with the city’s architectural engineering department noted that construction costs tend to creep upward the longer a project sits on the shelf, which helps explain why the current bid outpaces the original $280,000 estimate.
Even with the increase, the current proposal remains substantially cheaper than the park city leaders originally envisioned. Early plans called for a $450,000, 8,000-square-foot facility that included a six-foot-deep bowl feature. That version has since been scrapped in favor of a smaller, roughly 5,000-square-foot design, a scaled-back approach city officials say better matches available funding while still giving Mobile’s skateboarding community a dedicated space to call its own.
For skaters and families who have been waiting since the project was first announced, Wednesday’s council vote represents the clearest sign yet that the park may finally move from rendering to reality after years of delay.