MOBILE, AL
Neel-Schaffer helps long-awaited facility come to life
Neel-Schaffer provided a wide variety of engineering design and auxiliary services for the $4 million first phase of the Mobile (AL) County Soccer Complex that had its grand opening in July 2020.
Phase 1 includes three full-sized, lighted soccer fields, a practice area, utilities, and a landscaped 220-vehicle parking lot. Additionally, we provided engineering design for 2,400 feet of entrance road and another project to make improvements to the two city streets that border the complex.
Neel-Schaffer designed the complex master plan in 2014, but Mobile County did not purchase the land for the facility until 2018. Bids were opened in February 2019. Construction began in April 2019, and three new fields were ready for use by July 2020. In addition to the master plan, Neel-Schaffer services included environmental permits, engineering design and construction administration for the fields, a permeable paver parking lot, lighting system, landscaping, irrigation, sewer service and water service for the facility.
Neel-Schaffer helped shepherd Mobile County through the purchasing process for the land. Our firm also assisted the County in applying for several grants to help with funding for the lighting and irrigation systems, along with assisting the County with purchases of equipment from national cooperative bids. Neel-Schaffer has also begun design of the Phase 2 improvements for the complex, which will include a Championship Field, another lighted field and three new parking lots. When fully built the complex will include 10 fields, concession stands and permanent restroom facilities.
Many officials spoke about the importance of the facility to the community during a ceremony on July 23, 2020, to open the complex.
Danny Corte, Executive Director of the Mobile County Sports Authority, said the complex will allow the county to “finally get in the business of attracting those larger tournaments to our area that have eluded us for so long, and that’s really exciting from the Mobile County Sports Authority point of view.”
Merceria Ludgood, the Mobile County Commissioner for District 1, said the facility “will really be a crown jewel for Mobile County.”
And Chad Harrelson, the boys soccer coach at St. Paul’s Episcopal School, praised Connie Hudson, the Mobile County Commissioner for District 2, for her tireless work over the last eight years.
“When people in politics make a promise and stick to it, that’s a great thing to see,” said Harrelson. “I’d like to give a thumbs up to Commissioner Hudson for her willingness to not give up.”
“It has been a long and sometimes arduous journey to get to where we are today,” Commissioner Hudson acknowledged on opening night. “But I believe in looking around and seeing tonight what we have here before us it has been worth every minute of it.”
