There is an end in sight to construction on Canal Road West. While the road widening project is almost complete, Canal Road East construction will begin this fall.

“Canal Road, we hope, will be finished or very close to finished this week. There may be a few driveways that will be lagging,” said Mayor Tony Kennon during the May 4 City Council Meeting.

Kennon praised the construction company for their hard work, “The contractor has been very easy to work with and worked really hard in a very difficult situation.”

Residents and visitors should still expect some intermittent lane closure as driveways and intersections are completed.

“There will still be intermittent lane closure to do those improvements. Then we will have the deceleration lane being constructed into Cypress Village. We will also be redoing the driveway into the school so there may be some intermittent lane closures, but it is going to be nothing like what we have been dealing with for the past year,” said Kit Alexander, community development director.

Kennon and the city council expressed their excitement with the completion of this project, but you could hear the jubilation in Alexander’s voice when she said, “This is a big day for me and a big day for Orange Beach when we complete this project. I am so excited.”

Alexander also informed the council that the Canal Road East project will not begin until this fall. This delay will give residents a break and give Alexander and her department time to navigate the funding.

“We didn’t realize, until we got into the RESTORE federal council review process, that they are reviewing documents throughout, over and over again. There are a lot of documents that we have to put together because it’s a federally funded project,” Alexander said.

The Canal Road East project is estimated to take 15 months and should only affect one summer season. The project includes adding a center turn lane, a roundabout located near the library and a 10-foot sidewalk from State Route 161 east to Wilson Boulevard.