State transportation officials have taken a major step forward on the long-discussed plan to build a new Interstate 10 bridge across the Mobile River, narrowing a field of six design-build teams down to three finalists who will compete for the contract later this summer.
Representatives from the Alabama Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration spent this week evaluating presentations from six design teams from around the country at ALDOT headquarters in Montgomery. The teams were selected in the spring after ALDOT issued a Request for Proposals seeking firms capable of designing the massive river crossing, one of the largest infrastructure undertakings ever proposed in south Alabama.
ALDOT Southwest Region Engineer Vince Calametti attended the sessions and said the review panel came away impressed with the overall quality of the field.
“We were very impressed by all six candidates,” Calametti said. “The selection team expects to narrow the field to three designers in the next two weeks. It will be an extremely difficult decision.”
Once that shortlist is finalized, the three remaining design teams will travel to Mobile to present their proposals directly to a local selection committee at the end of July. That committee’s recommendation is expected to determine which firm ultimately wins the design contract for the bridge.
After a consultant is chosen, ALDOT plans to begin detailed design work needed to complete the project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement, along with construction plans that will guide the eventual build-out of the span.
The proposed project centers on constructing a new bridge over the Mobile River that would connect directly into the existing I-10 Bayway, the 7.5-mile elevated span linking Mobile and Baldwin counties across Mobile Bay. Under the current plan, the Bayway itself would also be widened from four lanes to eight lanes to match the capacity of the new river crossing.
Supporters of the project have long argued that a new bridge and wider Bayway are needed to relieve chronic traffic congestion at the George C. Wallace Tunnel, the current I-10 crossing beneath the Mobile River that regularly backs up during peak travel times and after wrecks. Freight traffic, cruise ship visitors and the region’s growing population have all added pressure to the aging tunnel, which was not designed to carry today’s volume of interstate traffic.
The bridge project has been years in the making, with local leaders, business groups and elected officials pushing ALDOT and federal partners to move the plan from concept to reality. Selecting a design team is considered a pivotal milestone, setting the stage for the environmental review and engineering work that must be completed before construction can begin.
ALDOT has not released a construction timeline or cost estimate tied to this stage of the process, but officials have indicated that additional public updates will follow as the design contract is awarded and environmental work gets underway.