As reported by WKRG News, engineers, designers, financiers, constructors, and developers came together in Mobile yesterday to try and get the ball rolling on a long needed piece of infrastructure in the Port City.
For some time, the I-10 Bay Bridge in Mobile has been a choke point for traffic traveling East and West. The worst of the traffic occurs in the West bound lanes when travelers are forced into one of Mobile’s two tunnels.
For years officials have called for the expansion of the Bay Bridge, but time and time again the project seems to get smothered by red tape—most of which came from an environmental impact study that has seemed to last a decade.
Now it looks like the wheels of progress might be slowly starting to move again. In a statement to the media about the project meeting, Mayor Sandy Stimpson said, “The enthusiasm in that room, people understanding, director Cooper made it very, very plain, we are going to build this bridge.”
The bridge will most certainly come at a large price, some estimate between $800 million to $1.8 billion. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the entirety of the bill will be paid with Alabama tax dollars. State Senator Bill Hightower said, “ALDOT had said we’re going to be able to get that money from Texans as well as Floridians as they pass through our region. So they’re going to help pay for that bridge.”
There is no indication on what the price of the toll might be. However, plans indicate it could extend from Virginia Street to the Eastern Shore.
The next step is to finalize the pool of applicants and award the project. This might not happen until the end of 2018. If all goes according to plan, officials hope to get the project underway in the spring of 2019. That would put completion of the bridge around 2023.
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