DAPHNE – The Alabama Department of Transportation has endorsed a proposal by officials on both sides of Mobile Bay to build the new Interstate 10 Mobile Rive bridge and Bayway in a single phase, members of the Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization said Thursday, Jan. 13.

The move means that planning on the new project can move forward and the route completed much sooner than the three-phase plan proposed in 2021, Fairhope City Councilman Jack Burrell, chairman of the ESMPO, said.

“I think the beautiful thing about the framework that we adopted and now ALDOT has adopted is that we can continue to move forward and any additional funds that we receive will go down to paying for the bridge,” Burrell said. “Depending on when we get the money, it can reduce the toll amount. If it comes later when the toll is established, it can reduce the term when we’re paying a toll.”

Burrell said some residents have expressed concerns that the toll will continue to be charged after the project is paid for. He said the written agreement with ALDOT states that the tolls can only be used to pay for the bridge.

“We have it in writing that once this infrastructure is paid for, that the toll will go away,” Burrell said. “It’s in writing from ALDOT. I can’t do any more than a written guarantee. I can’t predict the future, but that’s best we can do and at some point in time, you have to trust somebody.”

The proposal approved by members of both the Eastern Shore MPO and Mobile MPO would call for a toll of no more than $2.50 to use the bridge, but drivers must have an option to cross Mobile Bay using a route without a toll. Under the plan, the Causeway and tunnels would not have a toll.

County Commissioner Joe Davis said the plan gives drivers an option to use a faster route or a less expensive one.

“If you want to pay a toll to get someplace faster, you do it,” Davis said. “If you want to go through downtown Mobile on your way to Houston, Texas, you do that, but at least you have a choice.”

Spanish Fort Mayor Mike McMillan said the plan does not include improvements for the Causeway that will be needed if more drivers use that route as a free alternative. He said he spoke to ALDOT Director John Cooper about his concerns and feels that the state is looking into the issue.

“He understands the situation that we may be faced with in Spanish Fort,” McMillan said. “His biggest issue is he can’t make plans until he knows what needs to be done, outside studies and things like that.”

Burrell and other MPO members said Cooper and ALDOT officials have worked with Baldwin and Mobile representatives to keep the project moving forward.

“I feel like we have a very good working relationship with ALDOT right now and I do think that Director Cooper, who may have been mischaracterized in the past as having not communicated enough, if that was the case, he’s certainly, through various avenues communicated with us,” Burrell said.

Under the plan, cars crossing the new I-10 bridge would pay a toll of $2 to $2.50. Trucks would pay a higher charge. The tolls would be removed when the cost of the bridge is paid. In an earlier proposal, the Alabama Department of Transportation had said tolls could be as much as $6.

The total cost of the project was estimated at $2.1 billion in 2019, according to reports from previous MPO meetings. About 35,000 vehicles crossed the Bayway each day when it opened about 50 years ago. Today the total is about 100,000.