A years-long effort to stabilize a crumbling bluff in Spanish Fort is nearing the finish line, with the city set to spend $2.7 million by the time the project wraps up after five months of construction.
Work on the roughly 100-foot bluff began in July, following a legal battle that stretched back to 2009, when two homeowners on Patrician Drive sued the city over erosion damage tied to a failing drainage system. After losing the lawsuit and a subsequent appeal, the city ultimately purchased both homes as part of a settlement finalized earlier this year. Those properties have since been converted into a fenced stormwater detention area designed to prevent similar erosion problems in the future.
Mayor Mike McMillan said roughly $2 million of the overall cost went directly toward repairing and stabilizing the bluff itself, which now consists of a two-tiered concrete slope built with drainage pipes and catch basins that funnel water down toward the roadway connecting U.S. 98 with the Mobile Bay Causeway.
“There are a couple of loose ends that have yet to be tied up,” McMillan said, noting that the Army Corps of Engineers had signed off on the completed work. Crews still plan to install fencing along the base of the slope to discourage climbing, and newly planted pine trees are expected to grow in over time and soften the appearance of the concrete structure.
The bluff project’s price tag grew from an original estimate of about $2.5 million after the city opted to build a stormwater detention pond on Patrician Drive rather than pursue a simpler scenic overlook, a decision McMillan said engineers recommended for safety reasons.
The root of the project traces back to an August 2013 verdict from a Baldwin County jury, which found that the city had failed to properly maintain the Patrician Drive drainage system, contributing to the eventual collapse of the bluff. Jurors awarded more than $1.3 million to the affected homeowners, though a municipal liability cap reduced that award to $500,000.
A judge later ordered the city to begin emergency repairs after the city’s appeals were rejected by both the lower court and the Alabama Supreme Court. The timeline grew more urgent after record rainfall hit the area in the spring, creating what officials described as a critical situation at one of the homes before it was purchased and demolished.
With the heaviest construction now complete, Spanish Fort officials say the finished bluff should provide long-term stability for the area near the Mobile Bay Causeway approach, closing the book on a drainage dispute that spanned more than five years and multiple rounds of litigation.