ATA files comments to local MPOs on Mobile’s proposed truck-only toll bridge

ATA President and CEO Mark Colson

Today, the Alabama Trucking Association filed public comments with the Mobile and Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organizations to express our members’ concerns over the proposed I-10 truck-only toll bridge that will span the Mobile River.

After the previous attempt failed, which included tolling all vehicles to pay for the $2.1 billion construction project, local MPOs will meet in early June to add this same $2.1 billion project back to their Transportation Improvement Plans. This time, the proposal rests on a truck-only toll bridge, with an estimated cost of $675 million, to initiate Phase I of the project.

Under the current concept, trucking would be responsible for shouldering 100% of the burden even though trucking is less than 10% of the traffic, and trucking is being forced to pay nearly the same amount of money as the state and federal government combined.

The Alabama trucking community believes in the need for congestion relief on I-10 and supports improving infrastructure including the construction of a bridge. However, there is a broad and strong consensus among Alabama truckers that we should not be solely responsible for paying for this project.

We call upon the MPOs and the Alabama Dept. of Transportation to take our concerns seriously, and we ask them to study all funding and design solutions to implement a plan that is fair and equitable to all stakeholders and solves the congestion problems facing the Wallace Tunnel long-term.

To read the entire letter to the Mobile and Eastern Shore MPOs, please click here.