The $3.5 billion Interstate 10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project is Alabama’s No. 1 infrastructure project ranking ahead of a widening of Interstate 65, Republican Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth said Thursday.
The pronouncement comes about one month after billboards began appearing along I-65 touting the widening project that its supporters call the “Ainsworth Plan.”
“To me, and I said this years ago, (I-10) was the No. 1 bottleneck in the country and we had to get that done,” Ainsworth said about the I-10 project during a visit to Mobile. “Now that we have a plan for that, the next thing is we need a plan for 65. There is 366 total miles. We have 277 miles that have not been six-laned. Let’s have a plan for that. It will take eight to 10 years to do that.”
Ainsworth has backed the widening of I-65 as a key initiative in recent years, and even got former President Donald Trump to vow to make the widening of the interstate through Alabama a top administrative priority if he’s elected on Nov. 5.
But he told a Mobile Chamber audience that the I-65 widening project is the state’s No. 2 priority behind the I-10 project that recently won a $550 million federal grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bridge Investment Program.
The I-10 project will include a new six-lane, 215-foot-tall cable-stay bridge in downtown Mobile and a new elevated six-lane Bayway to replace the existing Bayway that runs approximately 7-1/2 miles from Mobile to Daphne.
The project’s main purpose is to alleviate traffic congestion on I-10, especially during heavy travel seasons that bring tourists to Alabama and Florida beaches. The interstate averages more than 78,000 vehicles per day west of the Wallace Tunnel in downtown Mobile, and the worries exist that more than 95,000 vehicles will be traveling routinely along the interstate in less than 20 years.
Financing the project – considered the most expensive infrastructure project in Alabama history – remains an issue. The state has dedicated $250 million toward the project, but Ainsworth was hesitant to commit to future funding for it.
“I can just tell you that the state will make sure it can get done and we’ll leave it to (the Alabama Department of Transportation) to figure out the funding,” said Ainsworth, a prospective candidate for governor in 2026.
“From my priorities, it’s got to get done,” he said.
The I-10 project also has $125 million from a federal grant secured in 2019 by former U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby. The lion share of the I-10 project will be funded through federal loans, which will be paid back through tolling. The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) is being sought after for the project’s financing.
An ALDOT official said in July that U.S. DOT officials will grant 49% of the entire project through the low-interest TIFIA loans. At $3.5 billion, that would amount to around $1.75 billion.
Bradley Byrne, president & CEO with the Mobile Chamber, said Ainsworth has been “pretty consistent” with his support on I-10.
Byrne said he remains hopeful the state will officially break ground on the project by next year, and not in 2026, while the Alabama governor’s race will be in full campaign mode.
“Everything comes from the governor through DOT, that’s where the focus has been,” Byrne said. “It’s a five-year build. We need to understand it will be another five years (before the interstate is completed after the groundbreaking). If you don’t start, that five years is just kicked down the road. We don’t need to be kicking that problem down the road.”
Byrne said he anticipates transportation priorities to be heavily debated during the 2026 governor’s race, no matter who might be running.
“We’ll certainly, as a Chamber, keep it front and center with people,” he said. “It won’t just be Mobile, but other places int eh state will be putting their transportation needs out there. I expect transportation infrastructure a major issue in that race.”
Byrne said the Chamber is also supportive of the I-65 project that Ainsworth has long been touting. He also said his group is supportive of the U.S. 43 widening project – called the West Alabama Corridor, extending approximately 100 miles from Thomasville north to Tuscaloosa – which had been embroiled in a priorities debate with Ainsworth and others approximately a year ago.
Ainsworth said he is “very bullish” on the coastal region, including Mobile and Baldwin counties. His speech before the Chamber included discussions about improving workforce development in the region and state, including housing and education.
But he said that connecting the beaches – which draw more than 8 million visitors a year – with a widened I-65 toward North Alabama and beyond needs to part of the plans.
“Baldwin County is booming … it’s growing and will continue to grow. We have to stay ahead of the growth. We need to invest on the infrastructure side, and we need real investment to stay ahead of the growth.”