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The Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) has issued a RFQ for the I-10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project.

Responses are due on 3 November and a shortlist will be announced in 8 December. The RFQ is available here.

The project would be Alabama’s first transportation PPP.

The proposed project will increase the capacity of I-10 by constructing a new six-lane bridge with 215 feet of Air Draft Clearance (ADC) across the Mobile River and widening the existing I-10 bridges across Mobile Bay from four to eight lanes. The proposed project would be located in Mobile and Baldwin Counties, Alabama.

The concessionaire will design, build, operate, and maintain the project pursuant to a concession agreement with ALDOT

ALDOT’s preliminary construction estimate for the project (exclusive of operations and maintenance) exceeds US$2 billion.

The preferred alternate would require widening beginning at I-10/Virginia Street and the I-10/Texas Street interchanges where the main Mobile River bridge would begin. The bridge would follow the existing I-10 route to the northeast and would shift east to cross over the I-10/Canal Street interchange, span the Mobile Harbor Federal Navigation Channel and tie into the I-10 Bayway approximately 0.88 mile east of the Wallace Tunnels. 

The project aims to ease congestion on the George Wallace Tunnel, the current I-10 crossing under the Mobile River. Constructed in the 1970s, it was designed with an anticipated daily traffic count of 36,000. Currently, the tunnel averages 73,300 vehicles per day, and can reach as many as 100,000 vehicles in the peak season. The traffic volume causes heavy congestion and longer travel times. An alternate I-10 crossing has been requested by the public and is in the public interest.

Besides in the Mobile area, there is a need to increase the capacity of I-10 to meet existing and predicted future traffic volumes and to provide a more direct route for vehicles transporting hazardous materials, while minimizing impacts to Mobile’s maritime industry.

As we reported, in August ALDOT hosted an Industry Forum and more than 400 engineering, construction and finance professionals gathered in Mobile to learn about the project.