State Rep. Simpson on I-10 Mobile Bay bridge: ‘Anytime, anyplace, anywhere, anybody — I will talk to anybody we can to try to get this bridge done’

Last week, State Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Daphne) stunned a lot of people by saying that he had no interest in discussions with Gov. Kay Ivey or Alabama Department of Transportation direction John Cooper after reports that local officials were considering re-upping an effort to build a new Interstate 10 bridge across Mobile Bay.

One of those was U.S. Rep.-elect Jerry Carl (R-Mobile), who insisted that was the wrong approach given the dire need for an improvement to the thoroughfare.

During an appearance on Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5 on Wednesday, State Rep. Matt Simpson (R-Daphne), who represents the House district adjacent proposed bridge’s location, said he would not rule out any discussions that might lead to progress on the project.

“My stance on the bridge project is anytime, anyplace, anywhere, anybody — I will talk with anybody we can to try to get this bridge done,” he said. “It is an important issue for our area. It is one of the top issues. If you ask anybody in our area — what would you want government to get done for you? That is one of the top issues that everybody says. We need to fix this bridge. We can’t just put our head in the sand and say, ‘I don’t like the way things happened last time.’ I didn’t like the way things happened last time, either. So let’s fix it for this time. You know, let’s figure out what we can do to bring everybody to the table and start [to figure out] where the plans went sideways, where did everything get wrong.”

However, Simpson did acknowledge the emphasis should be on the bridge’s utility and not its aesthetics.

“I don’t think we need this huge, massive tourist attraction bridge, which is some of the stuff they were saying,” Simpson continued. “Like, ‘Oh, you can sell T-shirts with this bridge on it. People will come visit down here. It’s just like the Golden Gate Bridge in California in San Francisco. People are going to visit here just to go to the bridge.’ That’s not what we need. That’s not appropriate for what we’re trying to do. Alabama is simple to the extent we want to be able to get from point A to point B without having to schedule an extra hour of our time to get there.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.