Drivers who use the future Mobile River Bridge, the Bayway and the George C. Wallace Tunnel could pay somewhere between $3 and $6 to cross the full 10-mile stretch, according to a state transportation spokeswoman who confirmed the pricing range is now being studied in detail.
The Alabama Department of Transportation has said publicly since last summer that tolls would help pay for the massive project, but agency spokeswoman Allison Gregg said officials have now narrowed in on specific figures for the entire corridor.
“We’re studying a $3 to $6 tolling range for use of the entire alignment,” Gregg said. “That’s from Virginia Street through to the Eastern Shore on I-10.”
The toll would apply to the full length of the project rather than being broken into smaller segments, Gregg said, because of the scope of construction involved from one end to the other.
“It’s an expensive 10 miles of bridge,” she said. “That includes everything from the start, including the approaches to the bridge all the way through the Bayway.”
ALDOT has been consulting with tolling specialists and professionals who have worked on comparable bridge and highway projects elsewhere as it settles on a final pricing structure, according to Gregg.
“We’re looking at the cost to design, build, operate and maintain the project,” she said. “Those are the factors that go into tolling, as well as traffic rates.”
Officials have framed the toll as a user-funded approach to paying down the cost of construction, rather than relying solely on general transportation revenue.
“The people who use the alignment will pay for it,” Gregg said. “It’s pay-as-you-go.”
The project has already seen its timeline pushed back once, after a federally required environmental review process took longer than ALDOT initially anticipated. As a result, the agency has not yet selected a concessionaire from among three finalist teams competing for the contract.
Once a concessionaire is chosen, ALDOT will sign a 55-year concession agreement covering design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of the corridor. Tolls will be collected throughout that 55-year period, Gregg said, but will not begin until construction on the full project is complete.
ALDOT is still planning for a five-year construction window, which would leave roughly 50 years of tolling once the bridge, Bayway and tunnel improvements open to traffic, Gregg said.
The overall project centers on a new suspension bridge carrying I-10 traffic over the Mobile River, paired with a taller, wider Bayway meant to relieve the chronic congestion and bottlenecks that have long plagued the current route between Mobile and Baldwin County.
The bridge and Bayway upgrade has been discussed for years as a way to ease one of the most congested corridors on the Gulf Coast, particularly during peak commuting hours and holiday travel weekends when backups at the Wallace Tunnel can stretch for miles.
State officials have not yet set a firm date for naming the winning concessionaire team, but the tolling range disclosed by Gregg gives area residents and commuters their clearest picture yet of what crossing the new corridor could eventually cost.