The room filled with chatter as Monday night's meeting came to a close, then Mayor Robert Craft took the opportunity to make a passionate plea to those who remained regarding the new, court-stalled Intracoastal Waterway bridge.

The fate of the bridge, a free cross over the canal being built by the Alabama Department of Transportation, is awaiting a ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court. At a July 17 Gulf Shores City Council work session, Craft said the decision is expected to come later this week or early next week.

The project officially began in early October 2022 when Gov. Kay Ivey awarded a contract to construct the bridge, which is intended to alleviate the traffic conditions on Highway 59, support access to emergency services and make it safer to evacuate in the case of a storm or emergency. Later that month, the Baldwin County Bridge Company filed a suit to stop the construction of the bridge, for which land had already started to be cleared.

"The Baldwin County Bridge Company filed suit in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County seeking to stop the ongoing construction of the free public bridge in order to protect the financial interests of the toll bridge company and the City of Orange Beach in the operation of the toll bridge," read a statement from Craft and the city.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Jimmy B. Pool granted the preliminary injunction requested by the toll bridge company on May 17, immediately halting construction.

ALDOT then appealed the order to the Alabama Supreme Court, in doing asking that the preliminary injunction be overturned to allow construction to proceed.

To show its support of the parties in favor of building the bridge, the city requested and was granted by the state's top legal organ to file a "friend of the court" brief. Craft's statement said the city filed the brief asking for the injunction to be dissolved "because of the clear harm to the public interest caused by Judge Pool’s interruption of the construction of the free public bridge. ... Protecting the profit interests of a private toll bridge and a municipality that directly benefits financially from its operation should never be placed over the public’s interest."

The statement said both the toll bridge and the City of Orange Beach filed briefs with the Supreme Court supporting an alternate plan that would require ALDOT to surrender the ability to construct the bridge — or any bridge east of the Hwy. 59 WC Holmes Bridge — for 50 years, regardless of public need.

Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon has said publicly and in precious reporting by Gulf Coast Media he thinks proposals by the Baldwin County Bridge Company to eliminate tolls for Baldwin residents and add more lanes and toll booths to the bridge in Orange Beach would be a better solution to traffic problems than the ALDOT plan to build the new two-lane bridge to the west.

In addition to the toll bridge in Orange Beach, the Dr. W.C. Holmes Bridge carries Hwy. 59 traffic across the water in Gulf Shores. The non-toll bridge carries more than 10 million vehicles a year, according to Gulf Shores traffic reports.

The new bridge is poised between the two existing ones. Gulf Shores is extending Waterway East Boulevard north of the Intracoastal to link with the planned road to the new bridge.

Another bridge on Alabama 182 crosses Perdido Pass in Orange Beach near the Florida state line.

Gulf Shores' brief points to an 1837 Supreme Court decision it says supports its cause, citing that Charles River Bridge v. Proprietors of Warren Bridge requires that the builder of a proprietary toll bridge must accept the possibility that a subsequent free public bridge may impair or destroy the profitability of the private toll bridge.

"There is no way to get the number of people in town today out of here if we get an early storm, if they rule in favor of the Orange Beach plan we are stuck," Craft said to the crowd of city staff and public attendees Monday evening. "Hopefully someone up there will realize that aside from the financial impact, there is an impact on our lives. It is a death zone if you get caught in a storm between here and the intracoastal."