Bringing back Broad
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T.I.G.E.R. on Broad

Bringing back Broad, also, T.I.G.E.R. on Broad. . By the turn of the 21st century, much of the grandeur of Mobile's longest north-south roadway, Broad Street, had faded. The streetcar that once connected the southern neighborhood of Oakdale to the city's northern communities along Springhill and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenues no longer ran. Businesses along the thoroughfare stood vacant and shuttered, or open but isolated amid decaying infrastructure. Many residences had fallen into disrepair. Despite its inclusion in the Urban Renewal project connecting streets to form the Hank Aaron Loop, Broad Street itself served more as a line of demarcation than the once envisioned, bustling artery that was meant, in part, to encircle and enrich the heart of the City. A new plan to revitalize the corridor from the GM&O Terminal to Ladas Pharmacy began to take shape, including replacement of traffic lanes with expanded sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and landscaped medians. In 2006, the City received a $987,000 federal transportation enhancement administered through ALDOT to create this new gateway into downtown. The restorative Bring Back Broad project saw construction occur between Canal and Virginia streets until 2008, reverting this section of the desolate, auto-dependent streetscape to a semblance of its former majesty and serving as an impetus for later development., Reverse Side , In 2016, ALDOT awarded Mobile a $14.5 million federal T.I.G.E.R. grant that included the "reinvention" of Beauregard and Broad streets from Water Street to Brookley Aeroplex, creating a cohesive "complete street" network to better serve the nearby residential and commercial sectors. The multimodal approach espoused in the proposed $22 million improvements thrust the foundational aspects of Bring Back Broad into public view once more, expanding on or refining work that had been completed nearly a decade earlier. The project's early phases focused on the establishment of freshly paved streets, bicycle lanes, amenities, and beautification from a newly constructed Canal Street roundabout north along Broad to the intersection of Lawrence Street. Later phases would see similer transformation to the southern portion of the project corridor. The T.I.G.E.R. grant initiative serves as a major developmental milestone for the city's future growth and a way of reconnecting the citizens of ten adjacent neighborhoods in the ongoing creation of One Mobile.