Ahead of construction on the long-planned Interstate 10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project, teams of archaeologists have been combing through a stretch of downtown Mobile near Virginia Street, examining ground that will soon be cleared for the massive span’s footings.
The Alabama Department of Transportation has spent recent months tearing down nine buildings within the project’s footprint just south of downtown, the first visible phase of a project that has been discussed for years but is now inching toward reality. Because the bridge’s final engineering design is still being finalized, officials say they cannot yet pinpoint the exact locations where the structure’s footings will be placed, so the demolition and archaeological review are being carried out across a broader area than the bridge will ultimately occupy.
Some of the nine buildings sat vacant before the state acquired them. Others held active businesses and offices whose owners and tenants were asked to relocate. State officials describe the acquisition process as lengthy, but say affected property owners were compensated at fair market value.
One of those tenants, attorney Jason Darley, moved his practice out of a building in the project area earlier this year, eventually relocating to North Lawrence Street. Darley said the process took shape gradually, beginning six to eight months before he actually left, after right-of-way specialists laid out a timeline for the move that he found largely accurate.
“I was pretty happy with the process, but I’m not an owner,” Darley said. “I talked with people who planned the project and they told me it was a ‘when’ not an ‘if.’ I was surprised when they said it was really happening.”
Darley said leaving the building was bittersweet. “There is some sentimental value in it, of course,” he said. “It was a beautiful building and I enjoyed being there.”
Once a building comes down, archaeologists move in to examine what lies beneath before any further site work can proceed. Because the bridge project draws on federal funding, it is subject to federal historic preservation requirements that call for a review of potentially significant archaeological deposits before ground is disturbed further.
Researchers with the Center for Archaeological Studies at the University of South Alabama have already recovered artifacts spanning thousands of years of human presence along the Mobile River, according to Philip Carr, the center’s director. The finds include evidence from prehistoric and colonial-era settlements as well as material from the 1800s and later.
Carr said some deposits identified so far remain largely intact, and a more intensive phase of excavation is expected to begin in the spring. He said the timeline for that work has been built around the broader construction schedule so it does not create delays.
“We’ll be finished by the time construction starts,” Carr said. “We have enough people power to make sure we stick to the schedule that’s already there. We’ve been given 12 to 18 months.”
Among the artifacts uncovered are prehistoric Native American shell mounds, pottery and animal bone fragments, Carr said, along with household items and ceramics dating to the 19th century. Those finds add to a growing archaeological record of the area, which has been inhabited and used along the riverfront for centuries before European settlement and through Mobile’s development as a port city.
Construction on the bridge and Bayway project is still expected to begin in 2020. State transportation officials have said they are weighing proposals from one of three development teams for the design-build contract, which covers construction of the new bridge as well as a wider, taller replacement for the existing Bayway. Proposals from the competing teams were due in June, with a selection to follow.
The winning team will be required to put private capital into part of the project, with that investment expected to be recouped through tolling. Tolls are planned for the new bridge, the Bayway and the George C. Wallace Tunnel, though they would be segmented so drivers pay only for the portion of the route they use rather than a flat fee for the whole crossing. Beyond the private investment, the project is also expected to draw on federal grants and other public funding sources.
Transportation officials have repeatedly emphasized the urgency of getting construction underway, citing long-term traffic projections for the region. Without a new crossing, officials have said, congestion levels currently seen only during peak holiday travel, such as the Fourth of July, could become a daily occurrence within two decades.
The overall construction timetable is projected at roughly five years, with a completion date targeted for 2025. Once finished, the new span is expected to rank among the tallest suspension bridges in the country, with a height only a few feet shorter than San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.