A planned expansion of the Interstate Ten Bridge across Mobile Bay is on hold and matters may get worse tomorrow. The Mobile Planning Organization decided to not vote on whether to include the bridge on its list of projects. That inclusion is needed if the project is going to get federal funding. Tolls on the new bridge and where the overflow traffic may go are just some of the issues that has local motorists buzzing. There may be an even more critical vote on the project in Baldwin County tomorrow.
On a busy day, more than 100,000 vehicles might cross Mobile Bay. That highway system built for around 35,000. Traffic often backs up for miles on what has been described as one of the worst bottlenecks in Interstate 10’s entire length from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Alabama Department of Transportation plans to fix the problem with an 11-mile bridge and elevated highway project that will take five years to build.
Assuming it’s built and motorists are willing to pay the tolls. The bridge and highway will cost $2.1 billion, much more than ALDOT’s annual $1.3 billion statewide operating budget. To pay for this, state officials have proposed a toll starting at $6 for a one-way trip. Without a toll, there can’t be a bridge, ALDOT has stated. That toll, however, would place a severe financial hit on residents and businesses, draining millions from the area economy.
"The infrastructure and the capacity is needed, but to place the burden on the citizens of coastal Alabama is unnecessary, not proper, in my opinion and inconsistent with how we fund projects in the rest of the state," says Dane Haygood, mayor of Daphne.
Haygood is also chairman of the Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization, a group of local government officials that must approve federal funding for highway projects in Baldwin County. Last Wednesday, the Mobile MPO tabled including the bridge funding in its TIP or Transportation Improvement Plan. Mayor Sandy Stimpson said they would wait until Governor Kay Ivey holds a hearing on the toll proposal in Montgomery in October. The Eastern Shore MPO will vote this Wednesday on a resolution that goes further, removing the bridge and Bayway project from the upcoming projects list.
"I know ALDOT and the state has gone down this path of a tolled option and to provide the financing and they want to get that to the finish line and I understand that and I think we all want to see what the numbers are through this procurement process, but the steps that we’ve taken are the last line of defense to ensure that locally we have a say-so," says Haygood.
"I'm about form, function, finance, and funding. That's how I was trained," says Baldwin County Commissioner Joe Davis, whose district includes Mobile Bay’s Eastern Shore, Davis said many constituents have expressed concern about the cost of the toll.
"One couple said both of us work across the bay," recalls Davis. "Both of us take a car and we project it’ll cost us $6,000 by our current use. How do you budget for that? And that’s what I think we’ve got to get on the table. The first estimates for the cost of the bridge were about $800 million."
Davis said one point of discussion would be possible cost cuts.
"I’m about trying to get back to that $800 million and deal with a safe capacity increase," he says.
Cost is not the only concern. The Highway 90 Causeway would not be tolled under the proposal. That would funnel more traffic through the older highway and into the city of Spanish Fort, a fact that worries Spanish Fort’s Mayor Mike McMillan.
"I’m concerned about the amount of traffic’s that’s going to be increasing because the locals are going to try to go that way," says the Mayor. "So you’ve got the Causeway where we’re worried about the traffic. I’m also worried about our businesses that are down there. Because if you have a $12 toll, that’s going to cut down on people coming from Mobile, coming from Baldwin County, wherever to go to our restaurants on the Causeway, so that concerns me."
Mayor Davis says that while this toll is proposed for Mobile and Baldwin, the implications could be felt statewide.
"It’s real easy for north of Birmingham to be saying ‘that’s their problem,’ meaning us, but this could open a door that maybe we don’t need to go through or we definitely need to know the ramifications of it," Davis says.
