Construction on a project to restore tidal habitat along a three-mile stretch of the Dauphin Island Causeway (Ala. SR 193) is expected to begin this fall, after the Mobile County Commission approved a contract for the work Monday.

“We’re delighted to see work begin on what is the largest and most significant investment in an Alabama coastal restoration project,” Mobile County Commissioner Randall Dueitt, who represents the area where the work will occur, said in a news release. “This is a fitting use of oil spill dollars because restoring the shoreline to historic proportions using modern engineering techniques will protect an important roadway and important habitats.”

The Dauphin Island Causeway Restoration Project will create tidal habitat from Bayfront Park to Cedar Point, according to a news release. The goal is to protect the island’s only access road from storm impacts and erosion and to re-create habitat that was damaged by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010.

Those goals will be achieved by placing rock breakwaters parallel to the causeway at various distances in order to re-create the historic shape of the shoreline. Around 300 acres of salt marsh on the west side of the causeway will be protected by the project, the release says. Once construction of the breakwaters is completed in 2024, a sand berm and marsh fill will be placed behind them.

“I am excited to see this very important coastal resilience project begin,” Alabama Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Chris Blankenship said in the release. “Not only will this project protect the only roadway connecting Dauphin Island to the mainland, it will be constructed in a way that is beneficial for crabs, shrimp, fin fish and oyster resources.”