Mobile County Commission Approves $22.6-Million Dauphin Island Grant

The Mobile County Commission recently approved acceptance of $22.6 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund for construction of the Dauphin Island Causeway Shoreline and Habitat Restoration Project, NBC 15 reported. “These funds are leveraged with an additional $7.85 million from the foundation’s Emergency Coastal Resilience Fund for a total impact of more than $30 million,” it added. The project is one of the largest and most significant investments in an Alabama coastal restoration project to date. The multiyear project to restore tidal habitat along the 3.3-mile stretch of the Dauphin Island Causeway from Bayfront Park to Cedar Point has also been approved by Gov. Kay Ivey, and there was no need for the commission to match funds. Its goal is to protect Dauphin Island’s access road from storm impacts and erosion and protect 280 acres of salt marsh habitat on the west side of the Dauphin Island Causeway. Design and engineering have already been completed, and construction is to begin this summer.