Leaders and supporters of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab broke ground Tuesday on a new facility they say will make the lab’s educational programs accessible to more students from all across Alabama and beyond.

The planned new dormitory improves the lodging situation that has been a bottleneck for years. The campus had been built as a U.S. Air Force radar base and became the Sea Lab’s home in 1972. Many of its facilities date back to that era.

“All you’ve got to do is walk around this campus and realize that this was an early warning base for the Air Force back in the ‘50s and ‘60s to know that we needed help,” said the lab’s executive director, John F. Valentine.

The Lab’s Beagle and Challenger dorms date back to Air Force days. Though old, those dorms have been renovated with modern climat

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