SPANISH FORT — There still may be an opportunity to connect a proposed Interstate 10 service road from Alabama Highway 181 through the Spanish Fort Town Center to U.S. Highway 98.

Last week that appeared to be impossible but Ellen Grisette of Cypress Equities said her company is hopeful a solution can be reached.

The project as it stands is a joint venture between TimberCreek, Baldwin County, the city of Daphne and the state of Alabama.

Each entity plans to contribute money to make the service road and Baldwin County 13 interchange on I-10 a reality.

Alan Cox, spokesman for TimberCreek, said the development plans to donate the land and $4.3 million to make the service road a reality.

Baldwin County has also agreed to contribute $1.5 million to the project and the city of Daphne appears to be ready to make a similar contribution.

The missing link is a section of road that would join the TimberCreek property to the Spanish Fort Town Center, which is being developed by Cypress Equities at the intersection of U.S. 98 and I-10.

“We have been working together for over six months trying to figure out a solution to this situation,” Grisette said.

Cypress was originally included in the project but was dropped from the plan after negotiation between the developer of the Spanish Fort Town Center and TimberCreek reached an impasse over the required contribution.

Grisette said, “We have been building over a mile of the frontage road starting at Highway 90 and going thorough our property, which is approximately $5.5 million that we are paying for.”

Cypress also offered to contribute $1.5 million more to complete the service road but that amount was not accepted by TimberCreek.

“They wanted us to contribute $4.6 million in addition to the $5.5 we have already committed,” Grisette said. “We don’t have additional funds to contribute to it.

“In our opinion, the whole road costs $14.5 million, we offered the $5.5 on our property, and $1.5 off our property,” he said. “We were offering to contribute over half. We were told we could participate for that amount or be blocked for 10 years.”

Grisette was referring to an apparent agreement between TimberCreek and Baldwin County that would block any entity, without TimberCreek’s approval, access to the service road for 10 years.

Another player in the process is Infirmary Health Services, which plans to purchase 100 acres from TimberCreek along I-10.

The land would be used to construct a new facility on the Eastern Shore, which could be larger than the Infirmary’s primary facility in Mobile. The proposed service road at this point is designed to terminate at the new Infirmary facility.

That development could be one small opening to bring the two developers together and complete the road.

Cox said during the Daphne City Council work session earlier this month that "the hospital will want two ways to access the facility." That is to allow emergency vehicles to bypass a road closure or traffic jam.

The hospital is planned for an area west of the Baldwin County 13 interchange. The question is whether that distance will be enough to make the Infirmary request access from the service road through the Bass Pro Shops development.

As it stands, that could be the only way the service road would connect Highway 181 with U.S. 98.

Grisette said, “This is not the best thing for the community, it is not the best thing for the hospital.”

“It just does not make sense.”