Although the since-postponed I-10 Mobile Bayway Bridge project seems like a distant memory, local officials still control the project’s destiny, according to Gov. Kay Ivey.
Earlier this year, Ivey declared the project “dead” after the Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization voted to remove it from their Transportation Improvement Plan. The project had come under fire for the tolling component proposed to finance the bridge’s construction.
During an appearance on Birmingham radio Talk 99.5’s “Matt & Aunie Show,” Ivey revisited the subject and maintained it was still a “needed project.”
“The bottom line is it is a needed project,” she said. “It is needed not only to Alabama and south Alabama but to the state as a whole. The local [Metropolitan Planning Organizations] have to put it on their approved list. We can’t even ask for, much less even get and use federal dollars. So how are you going to pay for it?”
However, she told co-hosts Matt Murphy and Andrea Lindenberg it was up to local officials to reverse course to get the state to move forward with any effort on a new I-10 Mobile Bay Bridge project.
“I turned the question over to the people and set up a meeting and called it for October 7 as I recall, so people of interest could sure come and tell me how are we going to pay for this thing,” Ivey continued. “The Baldwin County MPO just absolutely refused to put it on their shortlist. Mobile had to follow suit. So, until the locals come together and convince us they want this project, there’s no use for the state to spend energy, effort or money.”
“It’s definitely in their court,” she added.
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University, the editor of Breitbart TV and host of “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN in Huntsville.
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