Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey praised Mobile and Baldwin County leaders recently for reigniting the Interstate 10/Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project — an effort that she declared "dead" just three years ago.
AL.com, a statewide digital news service, reported that Ivey recognized the two metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), on opposite sides of Mobile Bay, for adding the newest version of the I-10 project into their short- and long-term plans and acknowledged that "progress is under way."
The city and county planners voted in late July to add the project back into their plans. The votes occurred slightly less than three years after the Eastern Shore MPO (in Baldwin County) voted to remove the earlier I-10 project from its agenda, creating an unusual high-profile dispute involving Ivey's administration and a local government agency.
"I'm grateful to the MPOs for putting it back on the map," she said Sept. 13 during her first trip to Mobile since the I-10 project was added back into the local plans.
The project, as proposed, includes the construction of a new 215-ft.-tall Mobile River Bridge, and a new 7½-mi. Bayway between downtown Mobile in the west, and Daphne on the eastern shore of the bay, followed by the demolition of the existing Bayway.
"It's a really important project that we need completed," Ivey explained.
Project on ‘Solid Footing' in 2022
The governor singled out Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson and Fairhope City Council member Jack Burrell — the respective chairs of the two MPOs — for guiding the process. She had, shortly after declaring the earlier project "dead," called on local leaders to devise a plan they could support and pitch it to the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) for consideration.
The state agency and the two MPOs have been working together to craft a new project for the past several years, according to AL.com.
"This project has local, regional and national importance," Ivey noted. "It makes our businesses more competitive and makes our roads safer and efficient for our residents."
Burrell, who chairs the Eastern Shore MPO, said he was glad that Ivey acknowledged the project's revival and said there were "no repercussions" lingering from the dissolution of the earlier I-10 project three years ago.
"[The ALDOT] and the MPO are on very solid footing," he said to AL.com.
Officials Feeling ‘Optimistic'
Ivey's administration butted heads with Baldwin County mayors and council members in August 2019, amid concerns over the state's approach over building the new bridge and Bayway through a public-private partnership arrangement financed largely with $6 one-way tolls, or $90 per month passes.
The Eastern Shore MPO, in a unanimous vote and following months of public outrage over tolls, removed the project from its Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP), which was critical because projects not included on that plan cannot receive federal funding.
It was then that the governor declared the project dead.
The revised project, though, estimated to cost $2.7 billion, is no longer organized through a public-private concern, and the tolls are lower than the 2019 plan. Currently, plans call for motorists with an ALGO Pass will be charged a $2.50 toll for a one-way trip over the new infrastructure. A $40 monthly discount also is available.
For those without an ALGO Pass, a one-way trip over the new infrastructure will cost $5.50. Motorists also have the choice of taking a free route off I-10, through the Wallace Tunnel and along the Spanish Fort Causeway.
Bradley Byrne, president and CEO of the Mobile Chamber of Commerce, told AL.com that the recent momentum on the project has him feeling "as optimistic as I have ever been" that the road and bridge effort will be finished.
He credited local officials with reassessing the 2019 project design and putting out a different plan that "looks like one that will work."
"No, we don't have the ball across the goal line yet, but we have everyone working on it and in every way that you can think of," Byrne explained. "It's a long build out on a project that size."
Focus Now on Securing Federal Mega Grant
An ALDOT official said the project's next big milestone is for the state to oversee the registering of companies to send "joint venture proposals" for the design and construction of the overall project. A well-attended industry forum supplying details about the project was held in August at Mobile's GulfQuest Maritime Museum.
Alabama officials are hopeful, too, that a federal $500 million Mega Grant is awarded for the project by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). The program, created in April, is available for large projects through the Bipartisan Infrastructure package signed by President Biden last year.
Tony Harris, a spokesperson of ALDOT, said he expects the USDOT will announce Mega Grant award recipients before the end of the year.
"We are still in the hunt and in the game (for the grant)," he said.
The I-10/Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project's financing, which critics have called a "house of cards," is dependent on the potential of receiving federal grants, primarily the Mega Grant.
It relies heavily on bonding which would be repaid through toll revenues. Financing includes $1.2 billion through bonding and another $1.1 billion through federal loans under the Transportation Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act (TIFIA).
In addition, the project will get at least $250 million in direct state funding and $125 million from a federal Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant awarded for the project in 2019.
Once the road/bridge project bonds are repaid, ALDOT vows to remove its tolls, according to agency officials. The toll revenue, according to the transportation department, cannot be used on anything other than repaying debt.
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