Plans have been resurrected to build a bridge for Interstate-10 and expand the highway across the Mobile River and Bay.
The metropolitan planning organizations of Mobile and the Eastern Shore voted this week on the plan. One of the main issues was the use of tolls to pay for the bridge.
Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson says there will be “no-toll” options for motorists.
“There actually three “no-toll” options. If you travel the Africatown Bridge Causeway, if you travel the Bankhead Tunnel Causeway or the Wallace Tunnel Causeway, those will all remain free routes.”
The plan will move forward without the large tolls that stopped the plan two years ago. Toll prices would be limited to $2.50 and a free route across the heavily traveled northern end of Mobile Bay would still be available.
Stimpson says travelers should take heart that the change is on its way.
“Over the holidays, driving across the bay way or the causeway and you’re caught up in congestion, just know we are moving this process forward so we can solve the congestion problem. It will be a shorter time frame than the 25 years that has recently been talked about.”
The new six-lane cable-stay bridge would be like previous plans and put the structure 215 feet above the Mobile River.