The Mobile City Council is poised to approve a $15 million contract to deepen and improve Langan Lake, a project Councilwoman Gina Gregory said has been in the works for decades.
Though the agreement with Hughes Companies Inc. to remove excess dirt from the bed of Langan Municipal Park’s central water feature and reimagine existing stormwater drainage channels into the lake was not on the council’s agenda for immediate consideration, Director of Programs and Project Management Jennifer Greene explained the project to councilors during their pre-meeting work session Tuesday morning.
Slated for a vote of final passage at next Tuesday’s meeting, the project calls for the westernmost portion of the lake to be dredged to a depth of roughly three feet and the easternmost portion to be dredged to roughly five feet over the course of 18 months, Greene said.
She explained the project, funded mostly by the Restore Act, also includes transforming an existing stormwater drainage channel into a more natural-looking creek with rock buffers that prevent excess sediment from filling the lake. A pair of new pedestrian bridges will be installed over the improved channel.
Greene told councilors two phases of the project have already been completed, with crews stabilizing portions of Twelve Mile Creek to further restrict sediment from draining into Langan Lake. She could not say exactly when dredging will begin, but told Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson work will likely commence after the beginning of July.
The city will work to keep the park open as much as possible, Greene said, but a parking lot west of Langan’s playground will be closed and reserved for de-watering bags. Greene said the 25-foot-long bags will receive the dredged dirt from the bottom of the lake and pump the water out. After that, the dried dirt will be transported for other uses.
The dredging will not only make it possible for park-goers to swim in and boat on Langan Lake, but will also remove large quantities of invasive apple snails from the ecosystem, Greene said. She estimated roughly 80 percent of the lake’s snail population will be removed by dredging.
Greene noted the city will also have to decide the fate of the lake’s resident alligator before dredging begins.
Stimpson and Gregory agreed the lone reptile will be relocated from the lake, possibly before an upcoming Paddle in the Park event on Saturday, June 7.
Gregory said she is excited to see the project finally materialize after working on it for years. She said many Mobile residents have fond memories of Langan Lake as a place to swim and canoe, and hopes the project will revive that scene of the city’s past.
“We are trying to get as close to that as possible,” Gregory said. “This is a great way to get started on something I have been working on for 20 years.”
