SPANISH FORT — Spanish Fort officials endorsed state efforts to get federal funding for Interstate 10 improvements between Baldwin and Mobile counties, but said they are concerned about the effects of the project on traffic through the city.

The city council voted Monday, May 16, to support the Alabama Department of Transportation's application for funding under the MEGA grant program that is part of infrastructure legislation passed recently by Congress.

The council also endorsed plans by the Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization to place the project on the area's Transportation Improvement Plan. The TIP designation allows the project to receive federal funding.

Under the proposal, ALDOT would build a bridge over the Mobile River to accommodate I-10 traffic. The plan would also replace the current Bayway with a new elevated interstate over Mobile Bay.

The estimated cost of the project in 2019 was more than $2 billion. State officials are now working on new estimates based on higher prices, ALDOT Director John Cooper said.

Project planners said some of the cost of the project would be paid with a toll on the Bayway and bridge. The Causeway, tunnels and Africatown Bridge would not be tolled under the proposal.

Spanish Fort Mayor Mike McMillan said making the Causeway the only free route across Mobile Bay will increase traffic on that highway and through Spanish Fort.

"Certainly, in the city of Spanish Fort we are very concerned about the Causeway, the effect on the Causeway," McMillan said. "Under the proposed plan and the way, it is now, if and when they build this river bridge and Bayway project, the Causeway would be the only free route across our bay, our delta area. That causes me great concern."

He said state officials have said ALDOT is working on plans for Causeway improvements.

"I've got the assurances of Director Cooper. I've got the assurances of everybody with ALDOT," McMillan said. "I've got the assurances of everybody on the MPO, they're not going to leave Spanish Fort hanging out there, that there certainly will be some plans in place prior to any construction going on the Bayway, to improve the Causeway traffic situation."

McMillan said the action by the council supports efforts to get funding for the project. He said the MPO could still remove the plan from the TIP in the future if proposed tolls are more than expected or other plans change.

"This does not mean that this council nor the MPO approves of any tolling or any plans that are out there," McMillan said. "We can always as an MPO remove it from the TIP if things are not the way we want to see them structured. By that, excess tolls or any tolls depending on how you want to go."

In a previous plan for the bridge and Bayway project, state officials had proposed a toll of up to $6 for a one-way trip over the highway. After residents and local officials expressed concerns about the economic effects of the toll, the Eastern Shore MPO voted in 2019 to remove that project from the TIP.

Under the new plan, the toll would not be more than $2.50 for a trip.