After three decades of setbacks, the Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project is finally headed toward construction.

In a rare joint op-ed published Wednesday by, U.S. Senators Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt announced the Trump administration has selected the I-10 project as the first ever to qualify for the federal Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program.

“This is a major moment for Alabama,” the senators wrote.

The pilot program designation is the first of three commitments the White House is making, according to the op-ed.

The administration is also clearing bureaucratic hurdles surrounding the project’s previously awarded $550 million Bridge Investment Program grant so the state can put those dollars to work faster, and it is cutting unnecessary federal requirements from the project’s scope, changes the senators say will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in cost savings.

Among the add-ons getting the axe: A federally required “observation overlook” and dedicated pedestrian and bicycle paths, which the senators said “added to the cost but did nothing to solve the central problem: moving people and commerce safely and efficiently through one of the most important interstate corridors in the United States.”

“This is where President Trump’s leadership is making the difference,” Tuberville and Britt wrote. “He knows infrastructure is about building roads and bridges that serve the American people, not funding wish lists that just make projects more expensive and harder to complete.”

With the federal pieces falling into place, the state expects to finalize a federal TIFIA loan by late summer to close the remaining funding gap, putting the project on schedule for a groundbreaking before the end of the year.

Wednesday’s announcement marks the payoff of what the senators described for years of high-level negotiations among Alabama’s congressional delegation, Governor Ivey, the Alabama Department of Transportation, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and local leaders, particularly those serving on the Mobile and Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organizations, all with Trump’s active participation.

“Alabama is ready to build this bridge,” the senators concluded. “The finish line is now in sight and President Donald J. Trump, state officials and the local MPOs deserve enormous credit for getting us here.”

Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.