Apowerful contingency of government officials, politicians, private business leaders and developers have outlined a plan to build a highway through the wetlands of Gulf State Park. “Southern Evacuation Parkway,” the name given to the proposed highway through Gulf State Park, suggests that the main purpose of the route is for hurricane evacuation.

But that is not its only purpose. Indeed, anyone interested in learning more about this issue can access the city of Orange Beach’s public document titled “Alternative Analysis Southern Evacuation Route Extension,” in which it is asserted first that a new north-south roadway will enhance the growth of the beach area and, in addition, provide an alternative hurricane evacuation route to Alabama 59.

A few sentences later in this same document, it further states that the project will NOT relieve the bottleneck that controls the overall evacuation of Baldwin County.

Evacuation route