Battleship Memorial Park Parking Lot To Undergo Restoration

Feb 10th, 2004

Parking Lot restoration Scheduled at Battleship Memorial Park

Visitors to the internationally known USS ALABAMA Battleship Memorial Park will be slightly inconvenienced over the next two months. The USS ALABAMA Battleship Commission, which oversees operations at the Park, has signed a contract with Hosea Weaver & Sons of Mobile to restore and repave the decaying parking lot.

Originally built in 1964 for the January 9, 1965 opening of Battleship USS ALABAMA (BB-60) to the public as Alabama’s only state memorial to the World War II and Korea veterans, the lot had developed a deteriorating surface over the years. The park has seen considerable change and development since the original construction. The original drainage routing plan has created problems for visitors and employees alike during and after hard rain.

“Rather than just add more asphalt to the lot, which would not have solved the problem” Bill Porter, Chairman of the Commission, said, “this required a major drainage renovation, and new sub-base as well as replacing the crumbling asphalt. We hope this carry the park through several decades before additional work will be needed.”

Engineered by David Volkert & Associates headquartered in Mobile, the parking lot restoration will also include paving of the park’s entrance drive out to the ALDOT state right-of-way. Bill Tunnell, the Park’s Executive Director stated, “We hope to be able to create a new entrance to the Park in the near future that will also address water standing at the present roadside entrance. The water ponding situation at the road will be eliminated by installing underground drainage, currently not in place."

The more than $800,000 project is scheduled for completion by the end of April.

Battleship Memorial Park, which now honors all Alabama veterans from each branch of the United States Armed Services, has hosted more than 12,000,000 visitors in the past thirty-nine years. The Park prides itself on the fact that no taxpayer-generated funds have ever been used for the daily operations since opening in 1965.

The Park recently completed a ten million dollar restoration project, which saw the hull of the battleship restored, and also included moving the World War II Submarine USS DRUM (SS-228) out of Mobile Bay to a permanent land-based location on the south side of the soon-to-be-refurbished parking lot. Both vessels are National Historic Landmarks.

For more info, visit http://www.ussalabama.com