State transportation officials say they are making headway on planning for a new Interstate 10 bridge over the Mobile River and a rebuilt Bayway across Mobile Bay, but soaring material prices and supply chain problems are making it harder to pin down a final price tag for the long-awaited project.
In a joint update issued this week, the Alabama Department of Transportation and the region’s two metropolitan planning organizations said market volatility and construction cost increases are slowing the process of finalizing estimates, even as the underlying planning work continues to move forward.
The project has been studied for more than a decade and has gone through several different funding proposals. A $2.1 billion toll-based financing plan collapsed in 2019 amid strong public backlash over toll costs, after the Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization voted to remove the project from its long-range transportation plans. Local officials have since worked through multiple alternative proposals, and in December 2021 sent ALDOT a formal framework outlining the terms under which the region would support moving forward again.
Under the current concept, ALDOT would build the project in a single phase, constructing a new six-lane bridge over the Mobile River along with a new six-lane Bayway spanning Mobile Bay. Tolls on the new lanes would be capped at $2.50 per passenger vehicle, while existing routes, including the Causeway, the George C. Wallace Tunnel, the Bankhead Tunnel and the Cochrane-Africatown Bridge, would remain toll-free.
The framework also calls for the state to contribute at least $250 million toward the project, on top of $125 million in federal funding already committed. Officials say any additional state or federal dollars that become available would go toward paying down project debt more quickly, which would in turn shorten the length of time tolls would need to remain in place.
Despite the cost uncertainty, ALDOT says it is aiming to deliver a formal proposal to local officials by June 1. ALDOT Chief Engineer Edward N. Austin said in a written message to the MPOs that the agency is hopeful, based on conversations with outside financial experts and federal partners, that a draft plan will be ready for review by that date, if not sooner.
Austin said that once a draft is complete, ALDOT intends to sit down with each MPO to walk through construction details, updated cost estimates, financing options and the potential for additional state or federal funding. He said the goal is to build a plan consistent with the framework local officials approved in December.
Under that framework, toll revenue collected on the new bridge and Bayway would be used strictly to pay down the cost of building the project and would end once the debt is retired. ALDOT has also said the completed infrastructure would be owned and operated by the State of Alabama, with no private concessionaire involved in financing or operating the toll system, and that construction is expected to take about five years once it begins.
Mobile MPO Chairman and Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said he was encouraged that the process is advancing, even as inflation and rising material costs complicate the numbers. He noted that Mobile is not alone in facing those pressures, since the same economic conditions are affecting infrastructure projects across the country.
Eastern Shore MPO Chairman Jack Burrell said local officials want to see a plan that both sides can stand behind, emphasizing that decision-makers need confidence not just in the design of the project but in the region’s ability to pay for it over the long term given its size and cost.
The Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project has long been considered one of the most significant infrastructure undertakings facing the Mobile and Baldwin County region, aimed at easing chronic congestion on the existing Bayway and through the downtown Mobile tunnels. Local leaders and ALDOT are expected to continue exchanging updates on cost estimates and financing details in the coming months as the agency works toward its self-imposed June deadline.