State Rules Out Northern Route For Mobile Bridge

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - Alabama transportation officials have ruled
out a northern route for a future Interstate 10 bridge over Mobile
River - a route favored by the Mobile City Council, historical
preservationists and shipyard owners.
The Alabama Department of Transportation decision comes almost a
year after officials said they would consider a northern route that
would bypass the I-10 Wallace Tunnel by using the Causeway, the
Cochrane-Africatown USA Bridge and Interstates 165 and 65.
But Transportation Director Joe McInnes says the northern route
is too costly and would not take enough traffic away from the
Wallace Tunnel, which is the point of building a new crossing.
The decision raises the prospect of legal challenges of routes
south of the I-10 tunnel. Officials first proposed a bridge south
of the tunnel in the 1990s. No word on when construction will
begin.