State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore), the Senate General Fund Budget Committee chairman, says he is aware of the need for the new I-10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project.
Albritton, whose district includes Baldwin County and will include Mobile County after the 2022 election, called the process “complicated” but acknowledges the recent developments of the Eastern Shore and Mobile Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) submitting a plan was a step in the right direction on Monday during an appearance on Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5’s “The Jeff Poor Show.”
“At least the MPOs are coming together on the east and the west to try to get a plan developed so we can move forward,” he said. “This, again, is a complicated process. We’ve got to keep paring at this problem until we get it resolved.”
This latest proposal is the latest chapter in a nearly century-long saga on creating a way for travelers to go from one side of the Mobile Bay to the other, which has seen different iterations come to fruition every few decades.
The Escambia County lawmaker said that “obsolescence” was a concern, but the need was unquestionable.
“I don’t know that yet,” he said. “I’m concerned because we are building in obsolescence. You’re absolutely correct. If we take the growth patterns that we have, and also we overlay that if we get this new infrastructure — the growth that that would precipitate and how we’re dealing with that, I’m not so sure.”
“Now I-10 was the best and most complete infrastructure that we’ve had and been able to get, and it’s stood there for a long time,” Albritton continued. “But we have outgrown that for some time, and it has become almost dangerous — not almost. Now we’ve got to do something more and something a little different, not a lot different but a little different. But we’ll just keep on working on this plan and see where it will go. The funding of it is going to be a problem. The appearance of it is being argued about. But the main thing we need is new roadways, new larger roads connecting these two commercial giants, Baldwin and Mobile [Counties].”
@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.
