ROBERTSDALE – A state request that the Baldwin County Commission endorse the proposed toll charge on the planned Mobile River Bridge left officials facing two difficult positions.
At a work session Tuesday, County Engineer Joey Nunally told commissioners that the Alabama Department of Transportation has asked that the County Commission pass a resolution supporting a proposed toll needed to pay for the $2-billion project.
At a public hearing on the bridge and Bayway replacement to expand capacity on Interstate 10 on May 7, ALDOT officials said a toll of between $3 and $6 is planned to pay for the route.
Commissioners said they realized that without the toll, the project that is vital for the region and national travel cannot be built.
“We need to support the project, but we need to say something about the toll,” Commission Chairman Charles “Skip” Gruber said.
Commissioner Jeb Ball said the commission might be able to endorse a smaller toll, such as $3, but a $6 toll for each one-way trip, however, would hurt many Baldwin residents who have to travel to Mobile for work or business each day.
Commissioner Billie Jean Underwood said the proposed tolls is a difference of 100 percent, a range that could have a major impact on residents.
“We’re very concerned about something that could affect the pocketbook of our citizens, but without the toll, there’s not going to be a bridge,” Underwood said.
Ball proposed that the commissioners set up a meeting with the Baldwin County Legislative Delegation to discuss funding for the project, before taking an official position.
Another issue facing the commission is that county officials are looking at a toll project in Baldwin County to fund the last phase of the Baldwin County Expressway between Interstate 10 and Interstate 65, Gruber said.
If the commission comes out against a toll for the Mobile River Bridge, it would be difficult to ask for a toll for their own highway project.
“If we don’t support a toll, we might as well forget about the expressway,” Gruber said.
Nunally said previous county commissions approved resolutions or letters endorsing the proposal for a Mobile River Bridge several times starting in 2008. None of those endorsements, however, mentioned a toll to use the route.
ALDOT officials said at the May 7 meeting that the Mobile River Bridge would be the first “P3” or Public, Private Partnership in Alabama. Under the proposal, a private company would build the bridge and be allowed to charge tolls for 50 years once the route opens in 2025. The state would own the bridge.
The plan calls for a six-lane bridge, 215 feet high, to be built over the river. The Bayway over Mobile Bay, which is now four lanes, would be replaced by an eight-lane highway that is 10 feet higher to project the road against hurricane storm surges.
Tolls would be charged on the Bayway, bridge and Wallace Tunnel that now serves as the main route for I-10 traffic at the Mobile River. The Causeway, Bankhead Tunnel and Cochrane-Africatown Bridge would remain without tolls.
