Visitors and residents of Daphne can once again enjoy the city’s Bayfront Park, which had been closed for months due to improvements to the area. The park re-opened Friday.

The city first opened bids for the first phase of revitalizing Bayfront Park and Bayfront Park Drive on March 15, 2022. The total cost for the project so far is $3.5 million, Daphne Mayor Robin LeJeune said.

[ Read more: See what projects in the Mobile Bay area received from the $67 million from GoMESA this year ]

Daphne Mayor Robin LeJeune said the project included:

• A rebuilt road from Main Street to Bayfront Park
• Additional parking
• Underground utilities
• Decorative lighting and landscaping
• A roundabout at the end of the road
• Public works crews cleaning up the park
• New bathroom
• Pier repair

“We’ll probably in the spring do some sort of ribbon cutting or something like that,” LeJeune said. “We’re excited to have it open and people getting get back to normal down there.”

Construction on Bayfront Park Drive, the road leading down to the park, was the most visible project, since the road was blocked off beginning in late 2022.

Moe’s Original BBQ, which is located on the road, had to adapt by using a different parking lot on the opposite side of the building. But earlier this year, Brandon Maye, one of the restaurant’s managers, told AL.com the new streetscape would be a boon for their business.

“We are already busy, but it will bring more business down here,” Maye said.

Bayfront is the closest park to I-10 on the Eastern Shore, making it a popular tourist location, but locals also frequent the park.

Isabelle Davis, 19, said she was “distraught” while the park was closed, but she took full advantage of the park Thursday evening, as the road work on Bayfront Park Drive had finally finished.

“I grew up coming here. I spent every summer here. I come here at least twice a week,” Davis said. “They closed it down right before I went off to college. I was really sad. I know about every inch of this park. I know all the trails, the secret trails, the beach area.”

One change Davis said she was happy about was the new streetlamps so she could feel safer at night.

But Daphne isn’t done yet. The city has been developing plans to build an amphitheater at the park. Bayfront Park’s future amphitheater received an unexpected $7.2 million boost from oil and gas lease revenues in August 2023 thanks to the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, also known as GoMESA. The amphitheater is expected to start construction sometime in the next two years, AL.com previously reported, and will have a capacity of around 2,400 people.

Updated Jan. 5, 2024, at 2:31 p.m. to include a total cost for the project. The $7.2 million GoMESA allocation will be used exclusively for the amphitheater, the mayor told AL.com.