SPANISH FORT – Work is moving forward to plan the new Mobile River interstate bridge and Bayway changes, but officials said that they do not have a final design or estimate of when the project could be complete.
At a public information meeting on the project at the Five Rivers MPO Five Rivers on July 27, Edwin Perry of the Alabama Department of Transportation said officials are working to design the bridge and changes in the I-10 Bayway.
“Right now, we’re looking at the phases of the project to better define what the project’s going to be,” Perry told the audience. “Also, right now, we’re working on getting updated traffic data and from that traffic data, we will form new financial studies.”
Officials said the planned toll bridge over the Mobile River will be open to all drivers who want to pay the price of using the structure. In earlier proposals, the bridge was said to be intended only for commercial truck traffic.
“We’re in the early stages of developing the scope. I know that from the amendment that was approved, we’re looking at all traffic being able to have the opportunity to use the new bridge,” Perry said.
He said the new bridge would have a toll, but the Bayway, Wallace Tunnel, Bankhead Tunnel and Cochrane-Africatown Bridge would continue to be without fees.
The current plan calls for the project to be done in three phases, Perry said.
The first phase will be to construct one four-lane span of the bridge over the river. The lane stripes on the Bayway will also be redrawn to allow three lanes of traffic each way. The Bayway now has two lanes in each direction.
Baldwin County Commissioner Joe Davis said he is concerned about the safety of narrowing the lanes on the Bayway.
“Everybody that I’ve talked to with a Baldwin County connection is very, very concerned about the safety and would be willing to go slower in two lanes rather than go faster in three and run the risk of not having much room on either side,” Davis said.
Perry said engineers from ALDOT and the Federal Highway Administration will study the safety of adding an additional lane as part of planning for the project.
“Right now, we’re trying to get our team together and that will be one of the first things that we work on with our team,” Perry said. “We’ll work with FHWA, because that’s going to be one of the things that we’ll have to weigh is the safety and traffic benefit. That will be part of our studies.”
After building the first bridge span and changing the lane stripes on the Bayway, the second phase of the plan calls for a second bridge and additional interchanges to be built. The third phase would be a replacement of the current Bayway, which was built in the 1970s.
The project has been discussed for more than 20 years, officials said. A plan to build a new bridge and add tolls to the Bayway and Wallace Tunnel was cancelled in 2019, when the Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization removed the proposal from its Transportation Improvement Plan.
Perry said that since the plan has been resumed, some of the studies, such as traffic counts will have to be done again to get more current results.
Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said officials and residents will have to wait for more information before they know when all the phases of the entire project could be completed.
“Based on what the conversation two months ago, they were talking about six or seven years from the time you fund it, build it and get ready for the next one,” Stimpson said. “You could be looking at, it could be 20 years from what I remember being said. So, I think that’s sinking in for everybody.”
