MOBILE, Ala. – City officials said Florida Street will fully reopen Friday after a more than 1½-year-long drainage project that forced lane closures and prompted a class-action lawsuit by business owners along that stretch.

The Florida Street project entailed replacing drainage pipe with a large culvert that goes downhill from railroad tracks south of Dauphin Street to Woodcock Creek. Workers are just finishing the second phase, which had closed most of the lanes from the railroad line to Emogene Street.

Work began on the project in the summer of 2007.
Florida Street has long been one of the major business corridors in midtown Mobile, with stores selling everything from beads and candy to groceries and furniture.
Ten business owners along the corridor sued the city and Volkert & Associates engineering firm in February 2008, alleging that the project was taking too long, damaging property and isolating the stores from customers.

Several other businesses have since joined the lawsuit, and the plaintiffs added the construction company to the list of defendants.

City spokeswoman Barbara Drummond said the street will likely have to be closed again in the future. The city has requested a permit from the railroad company to install the culvert underneath the train tracks. A timetable for that phase of the project has not been determined.