The announcement that construction on the Interstate 10 Mobile River Bridge will finally begin before the end of 2026 set off a wave of celebration among Alabama’s Republican officials, nearly all of whom credited President Donald Trump’s administration for breaking the logjam. Mobile’s congressman was not among them.
U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, a Democrat who represents Alabama’s 1st District, said in an interview that the praise being heaped on the White House does not match the actual dollars the federal government has committed to a project that will reshape travel across the Gulf Coast for generations.
“I am grateful we are at a point now where we can finally get shovels in the ground, but to sit here and praise this administration for making this happen is almost like praising someone for giving you breadcrumbs while they sit there and eat steak in your face,” Figures said. “Donald Trump and his administration did not stand up for the state of Alabama and Mobile and Baldwin counties the way they stood up for him.”
The Funding Ledger
Figures pointed to a specific comparison. During Trump’s first term, the project received $125 million through the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant program in 2019. Under President Joe Biden, the state secured a far larger $550 million award from the Bridge Investment Program in 2024.
By the congressman’s accounting, the current administration has “strung this thing along,” denying direct funding requests he submitted to the White House. He noted that similar requests from U.S. Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville, along with state and local officials, were also turned down.
The heart of his objection is structural. Interstate projects, Figures said, typically draw more than 70 percent of their direct funding from the federal government. The Mobile River Bridge will instead be financed largely through a federal loan under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, a program that provides low-interest credit rather than grant money. That loan must be repaid, and the repayment will come primarily from tolls paid by the drivers who use the bridge.
- A grant is money the federal government contributes and does not expect back.
- A TIFIA loan is borrowed capital that must be repaid with interest.
- Tolls become the mechanism by which local motorists effectively repay that borrowing.
“For the Trump administration to be outdone by the Biden administration in terms of direct support for this bridge and to continue to refuse to provide more support for this bridge is to me just unworthy of the pomp and circumstance people are now engaging in in this state in terms of saying he’s responsible for this bridge,” Figures said.
What the State and Other Officials Said
The Alabama Department of Transportation framed the news differently, stating that “recent actions by the Trump administration” made it possible for construction on the Mobile River Bridge to begin this fall. State transportation officials have emphasized that federal flexibility on grant conditions and procedural requirements is what allowed the project to be split into phases and remain financially viable.
Tuberville thanked the president, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles “for listening to Alabama, cutting through the red tape and helping get the Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project moving forward.” Britt said she “couldn’t be more grateful to President Trump” for recognizing the project’s importance. U.S. Rep. Barry Moore described the effort as “a generational investment in South Alabama.” Gov. Kay Ivey likewise credited the administration.
The Project Itself
The plan calls for a new six-lane bridge over the Mobile River, carrying an estimated cost of $3.2 billion on its own. A replacement Bayway spanning Mobile Bay between Mobile and Baldwin counties will follow in a second phase, funded substantially by tolls collected once the bridge opens. Completion of the bridge could come as early as 2031.
In the interim, the existing Bayway, formally known as the Jubilee Parkway, will be re-striped to carry three lanes in each direction, a stopgap intended to relieve the daily congestion that turns the crossing into a bottleneck during storms, holidays and beach season.
What Comes Next in Congress
Figures said he intends to keep pressing for additional direct financial support in Washington rather than accept the current funding structure as final. A proposal he championed to increase the federal funding Alabama receives for bridge improvements recently advanced out of a U.S. House committee.
The distinction he is drawing is one that will land squarely on Mobile and Baldwin county residents. Every dollar of grant money the project fails to receive is, in effect, a dollar that motorists will eventually pay at a toll gantry. For commuters who cross the bay twice a day, the difference between a fully grant-funded bridge and a toll-financed one is not an abstraction. It is a line item in the household budget for decades to come.