Orange Beach City officials, department heads and staff gathered March 16 to cut the ribbon on the new Public Works building after a year of construction.

Public Works had to move from its old location off Williams Silvers Parkway after the city donated the 40 acres to the Baldwin County Board of Education as the new home of the Orange Beach Middle / High School.

The new Public Works building is located on Roscoe Road, off the Beach Express, near Columbia Southern and Baldwin EMC.

Public Works Director Tim Tucker and his department saved the city nearly $1 million in construction costs by acting as the general contractor and using city crews to handle much of the construction. Crews handled the site work, concrete formwork, irrigation and landscaping and interior work. Sun Coast Builders Inc. constructed the main metal building under a low-bid contract of $1.18 million. The total cost of the project, after the land purchase, came in at $2.8 million.

The building has 9,500 square feet of office space, 27,000 square feet of warehouse space, 1,800 square feet of building maintenance shop space, four mechanic bays covering 8,000 square feet with two lifts and one pit, new fuel dock and a total of 60,000 square feet of space under one roof. The building was built to withstand winds up to 160 mph. The site will also include two fully functional greenhouses.