State, federal and local leaders broke ground Friday on the Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project at Cooper Riverside Park in downtown Mobile, marking a major milestone for the largest infrastructure project in Alabama history.
Gov. Kay Ivey was joined by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, U.S. Sens. Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt, U.S. Reps. Shomari Figures and Barry Moore, and a host of leaders from the Eastern Shore and Mobile metropolitan planning organizations, and other state and local officials. University of South Alabama President Jo Bonner served as master of ceremonies for the event.
Representatives from the KMT design-build team also attended and participated. Following Gov. Ivey’s notice to proceed last week, KMT began mobilizing and gearing up for construction in earnest.
The groundbreaking follows nearly three decades of planning, engineering, environmental review, design and financing efforts to improve Interstate 10’s capacity between Baldwin and Mobile counties.
The $3.2 billion Phase One project includes a new six-lane, cable-stayed Mobile River Bridge, improvements to key interchanges and traffic flow, and restriping the existing Bayway to provide six lanes of capacity across Mobile Bay. Project plans call for a new Bayway structure in a future phase.
The project moved toward construction through a revised approach developed through coordination among ALDOT, the Eastern Shore and Mobile MPOs, and other project partners.
Construction is expected to take five years.
