EDITOR’S NOTE –

An architectural rendering of the planning bridge

MOBILE, Ala. – It’s simple. Opposition to the toll for a new bridge crossing Mobile Bay is overwhelming, and since the proposal claims the project cannot be completed without the toll money, it is dead in the water.

You can read all about it here, and see the mainstream press coverage here of the public hearing in Baldwin County.

A source inside the Alabama Department of Transportation indicated to me outside the meeting that the opposition from Baldwin County was not just from members of the public, but from public officials as well, and therefore he didn’t think this bridge idea, location and design “would fly.”

He also said there are many places around the country with way more traffic congestion and where bridges and overpasses are in need of replacement or repair, and the federal money to be used for the Mobile River bridge would be better spent somewhere else.

The New American Journal editorial board is opposed to the new bridge on many grounds, largely based on massive amounts of data proving that building new roads and bridges NEVER relieves congestion. It just opens up more lanes to more congestion.

“If you build it, they will come.”

That’s what happens.

But they may not come here, if they have to pay a toll. Rather than helping tourism, it might just make a significant dent in running it off to other places along the coast, like Florida and Texas.

It is also potentially a new bridge to nowhere, since the area it serves could very well be under water in a few years as sea levels continue to rise due to ongoing climate change from global warming — because of the very practices the bridge is designed to promote. Burning oil and gasoline for commuter traffic with most drivers alone in large pickup trucks and SUVs is not planning for a sustainable future.

The most intelligent comments from the public hearing in Mobile are reprinted below, from our own Associate Editor, David Underhill.

I-10 MOBILE RIVER BRIDGE AND BAYWAY Public Hearing – 5/9/19

This plan is a $2 billion project to build a bridge to the 20th century. It displays a sad failure of imagination and a shocking failure to address the actual issues of the 21st century.

Imagine if $2 billion were spent on affordable housing near jobs so thousands of commuters did not need to cross the bay every workday. Imagine if those who must cross the bay had access instead to convenient and reliable public transit, which would remove from the road many of those SUVs with a solitary driver and no passengers. And imagine alternate transit available to weekend and holiday travelers.

Then consider the actual challenges of the 21st century, which include the greenhouse gas assaults on the climate of our sole worldly home. This threat requires urgent anticipatory action, not a reflexive repeat of antiquated habits that endanger all living things.

Already ten traffic lanes cross the river in Mobile and eight lanes cross the bay. But this project says that is not enough—many more lanes must be added, which will not reduce congestion. Rather, as experience elsewhere shows, this expansion will attract more traffic and eventually a return of congestion.

That means more burning of fossil fuels and more greenhouse gasses in a time that demands these things swiftly shrink.

The momentum this project has already achieved to push it toward construction will serve well the contractors who build it and the economic planners whose minds are mired in regressive impulses. It will not serve the future well.

May these thoughts weigh upon your conscience as you proceed with this affront to vision and reason.

– David Underhill