State Sen. Williams to Gov. Ivey on ‘Bloody 98’ highway improvement delays: ‘I have been patient — The people of Mobile County have been patient but enough is enough’

As is the case with many major east-west thoroughfares crossing from Mississippi into Alabama, U.S. Highway 98 narrows from a four-lane highway to a two-lane road as it crosses the state line and across the Escatawpa River into Wilmer headed southeast toward Semmes and Mobile. That is where what has been deemed “Bloody 98” begins, named for the numerous traffic fatalities.

Decades ago, lawmakers made promises to improve U.S. Highway 98, along with U.S. Highway 45, which also heads in a northwesterly direction from Mobile into Mississippi. Thirty years later, both routes remain roughly the same as they had during the middle of the last century.

On Tuesday, State Sen. Jack Williams (R-Wilmer) vented his frustrations over the decades of neglect to the route in a scathing letter sent to Gov. Kay Ivey and released to the media.

The typically media-shy freshman Mobile County state senator decried the unfulfilled pledges in his letter to the Governor.

“I have trusted other elected officials and highway department officials time and time again when they made promises of funding the highways in my district,” he wrote. “Time and time again those were found to be empty promises.”

Williams also pointed to his support of the 2019 Rebuild Alabama Act, which raised taxes on gasoline. He noted his support of the bill was done with the hopes of improvements to U.S. Highway 98.

“It is no secret I supported the fuel tax and I absorbed the backlash that it caused,” Williams wrote. “I did it because I felt it was the right thing and I was made to believe U.S. Highway 98 would be one of the first projects to be funded. It appears I will be disappointed again as money generated by the people of Mobile County will again be used to fund projects in other areas of the state. As a result, U.S. Highway 98 will remain as a two-lane and ‘Bloody 98’ will live on as it claims additional lives.”

Williams mentioned the “New 98,” currently designated as State Highway 158, which will connect the existing U.S. Highway 98 to Interstate Highway 65 near Saraland, north of Mobile. The route is partially completed and financed with funds from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement.

He concluded with a plea to Ivey, insisting on a more expeditious approach.

“Again I say enough is enough and it is time to right the 30-year wrong,” Williams added. “A one-year postponement is understandable. A five-year delay is acceptable. But 30 years is outside understanding. I am asking you to understand the passion of my cry to get the funding in place to update this highway as it was proposed three decades ago.”

Read the letter in full:

@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.