Mobile River Bridge Push: Tuberville, Britt Say Duffy First Said No Before Trump Stepped In

MOBILE, Ala. — When Alabama’s two U.S. senators first asked Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for help getting the Mobile River Bridge built, the answer was no. At Friday’s groundbreaking along the Mobile River, Sens. Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt described how they kept pressing — through Duffy, through the White House and, by Tuberville’s telling, on the golf course with President Donald Trump — until the long-stalled Interstate 10 project secured the federal loan that closed a roughly $2.5 billion financing gap.

The accounts, delivered at the Oct. 2 ceremony, offered a rare look at the politics behind the largest infrastructure project in Alabama’s history. Duffy confirmed the president personally called him about the bridge. Not every speaker framed the outcome the same way, however: U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, welcomed the start of construction but said the federal government could and should still put more money into the project.

For details on the ceremony itself, see our groundbreaking coverage.

‘We don’t have the money’: Duffy’s first answer

The project had been in front of federal authorities for years before Trump returned to the White House in 2025 and appointed Duffy to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation. Tuberville said he personally stepped up his efforts after that change in administrations — and that Duffy did not initially warm to the idea.

“I went to go see him and said, ‘We need to talk about a bridge.’ He wasn’t too fired up about it. He said, ‘We don’t have the money,’” Tuberville recalled.

According to Tuberville, Duffy also knew the two senators would not take no for an answer — and predicted how they would go around him:

“‘Katie, I know you’re good friends with the president. He’s gonna call me after you talk to him. I’m going to tell him I don’t have the money,’” Tuberville said Duffy told them. “‘I know, Coach [Tuberville], you’re gonna play golf with him, and you’re gonna hammer him for that entire golf round. He’s gonna call me and tell me to get that bridge done. I’m going to tell him I don’t have the money.’”

Tuberville: Mobile moved ahead of Cincinnati and Baltimore

Despite the initial resistance, Tuberville said the advocacy paid off, and that the I-10 Mobile River Bridge took precedence over pending projects in Cincinnati and Baltimore that were also seeking federal help.

“They’re not building them. This has been approved by the best president that’s ever been in this country, Donald Trump. He figured out a way to do it with Secretary Duffy, the best transportation secretary we’ve ever had, and they got it done,” Tuberville said. “We need to understand how important this is, and how lucky we are to get this by the best president ever, Donald Trump. It would have never happened. He found a way to get it done.”

Britt: ‘That’s how I heard it go down too’

Britt, who spoke immediately after Tuberville, backed his version of events. “Coach, that’s how I heard it go down too,” she said.

In her remarks, Britt said the president himself was aware of how the two senators planned to apply pressure.

“You and I sitting there saying, we need it, this one right here … [President Trump] knew our tactics, too. He called us out. He said, Katie, you’re going to call him, and then he’s going to call me and Coach, you’re going to play golf with him, and then he’s going to call me.”

Britt said every person involved played a role, “but I will say this would not have happened without President Trump.” She credited Duffy with continuing to look for a path forward instead of letting the funding problem end the conversation.

“Secretary Duffy, without your willingness to listen and try to figure out what is a pathway forward—that’s what a servant leader is, is not someone who just immediately says no, but says, ‘let me hear what you need and let me see, is there a pathway forward?’” Britt said. “Without you, without Susie Wiles, and without President Trump, we wouldn’t be standing here today. So, thank you so much, Secretary Duffy. You not only recognize the importance of the project, but you help us cut through the red tape. That’s what we have to do more and more.”

Wiles serves as White House chief of staff.

Duffy confirms the call from the White House

Duffy offered his own account of how the pressure reached him. He said Trump personally called him about the project after Alabama officials made their case, and he did an impression of the president for the crowd.

“‘Sean, I love Alabama. Alabama’s amazing. People in Alabama. I-10. I think we need to build that bridge,’” Duffy said. “And I’m like, ‘OK, Mr. President.’”

Duffy said federal officials still had to work through a complicated mix of grants, loans and tolling.

“It wasn’t easy,” Duffy said. “If you saw the work that had happened behind the scenes … making sure we could figure out how to make the money work — the grants, the loans, tolling — to make this day a reality.”

How the Mobile River Bridge financing came together

The breakthrough relied in part on an unusual federal tolling program, the Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program. The program does not provide money on its own. Instead, it gives Alabama more flexibility to toll an existing interstate corridor and use that toll revenue alongside federal loans and bonds.

The key loan comes through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or TIFIA, a federal credit program that offers low-interest, long-term financing for large transportation projects. Last month, the Alabama Toll Road, Bridge and Tunnel Authority secured a TIFIA loan of up to $2.52 billion. That loan closed the project’s financing gap.

By the numbers

• $3.2 billion: total estimated cost of the Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project.
• Up to $2.52 billion: TIFIA loan secured last month by the Alabama Toll Road, Bridge and Tunnel Authority.
• Nearly $1 billion: already committed through federal grants and state funding.
• $550 million: Bridge Investment Program grant awarded under President Joe Biden’s administration, part of that nearly $1 billion.
• About $3: expected base toll each way when the bridge opens, with financing documents requiring increases over time.

Two phases

The TIFIA loan will largely finance the first phase of work: the new Mobile River Bridge, interchange improvements and restriping of the existing Bayway to carry six lanes. Toll revenue from the completed bridge is then expected to help finance construction of a new Bayway across Mobile Bay in a later phase.

Drivers are currently expected to pay a base toll of about $3 each way when the bridge opens. Financing documents require that rate to rise incrementally over time, a change ALDOT confirmed last month after years of assurances that tolls would not increase.

Tolls remain the project’s political weak spot

Tolling has long been the project’s biggest political vulnerability. An earlier version unraveled in 2019 amid intense public opposition after the Alabama Department of Transportation proposed tolls as high as $6 each way. That plan was dropped, and the project stalled until the current financing structure came together.

The issue persists. Ideas to soften the cost include a proposed state income tax credit for tolls paid on the new bridge and Bayway, and at least one Mobile city councilman has voiced hope that federal leaders might forgive the loan and end the planned tolls.

Figures: ‘We got to go back and get some more money’

Figures, whose congressional district includes Mobile, also spoke at the groundbreaking. He celebrated the project moving forward but pushed back on the idea that the federal government lacked the money to do more.

“I don’t buy the excuse, and nor do I think most people here in the community buy the excuse, that we don’t have the money because we do have the money,” Figures said. “It’s a matter of prioritizing what that money is going to be spent on.”

Figures noted that while the Trump administration extended $125 million to the project during the president’s first term, no additional grant funds have materialized in his current term. He acknowledged the administration’s role in getting construction underway while arguing the job is not finished.

“What we did get was at least a pathway to allow us to get started and buy us more time to find the money,” Figures said. “So I don’t want to downplay the significance of the role that the Trump administration did play in at least being able to get us to the point where we can get shovels on the ground. But we got to go back and get some more money.”

Britt credits Ivey, Stimpson and decades of local advocacy

Beyond the White House, Britt spread credit across state and local leaders, describing the groundbreaking as the product of a decades-long effort that predates her time in office.

“There are so many people who have helped make this happen. This event is a testament to what can happen when local, state and federal leaders work together as a team,” Britt said. “But this journey was not easy. As you’ve heard, it started quite some time ago. Back even before 1997, when people knew there was a need for this, tirelessly, people in this community have worked to elevate this to the highest level.”

She singled out Gov. Kay Ivey, who she said “laid the foundation at the very beginning of your term as governor,” and former Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, recalling that in meetings with her he wanted to talk only about the bridge.

“He was laser-focused because he knew that this would be a game changer, not just for Alabama and Mobile and Baldwin County, but for the region and for the nation. His tenacity has helped lead us here today,” Britt said.

What the project will build

The $3.2 billion Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project will reshape Interstate 10 through Mobile and Baldwin counties. Its centerpiece is a new six-lane, cable-stayed bridge over the Mobile River. Interchange, intersection and traffic-flow improvements are also planned.

It aims to ease congestion at the George Wallace Tunnel and give trucks hauling hazardous materials a direct interstate route to the port, sparing them detours through downtown Mobile and nearby neighborhoods.

“This corridor is going to be a lifeline for Alabama, for the region and for the nation. It’s going to connect the Port of Mobile. It’s going to connect our shipbuilders, our military assets, our hard-working Alabamians and wonderful Americans who travel to visit our great state,” Britt said. “This investment will mitigate ongoing safety concerns and also strengthen our hurricane evacuation routes.”

The naming question

At least one official has proposed naming the bridge for the president. U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, recently suggested that Alabama lawmakers call it the “Gateway to the Gulf of America, the Donald J. Trump Bridge.” Other names have also been floated in what has become a broader naming debate.

Trump addressed the idea while speaking to rally attendees in Mobile on Friday evening.

“Maybe I’ll be happy. Maybe they’ll name the damn bridge after me, and I’ll be happy,” Trump said. “I’ll be happy. Then I’ll say, ‘You can have overruns. I don’t care, have some overruns.’ Then I’ll say, ‘Have all the overruns you want; just absolutely make it the greatest bridge in the world.’”

What happens next

With ground broken, work moves into the first phase financed largely by the TIFIA loan. Several questions remain open for residents and commuters:

• Whether Congress or the administration will provide additional grant money, as Figures urged, that could reduce the amount that must be repaid through tolls.
• How state proposals to offset tolls for Alabama drivers will fare in the Legislature.
• What the bridge will ultimately be named.

“So today, I am thrilled to say we are finally here and thank everybody who played a role in making this happen,” Britt said in closing. “What an incredible day and a milestone for our state. There is a lot more to come. God Bless.”