State impedes Baldwin Beach Express expansion

FOLEY, Ala. (WALA) - BEACH EXPRESS: NO CONNECTOR TO I-10

The Beach Express in Baldwin County is undergoing a $100 million expansion to I-10. But there's a problem, the state is refusing to build the connector to the interstate. The snag is a failed negotiation with American Roads, the owners of the private toll bridge in Orange Beach .

During Tuesday's county commission meeting, Commissioner Charles "Skip" Gruber addressed issues concerning the road's problems.

He said, "We've got a lot of folks that support us on this. Our congressman, our senators, they pushed real hard to get this; and now, we're getting jerked around again. And I don't like that."

Now, all Baldwin County officials can do is wait to see if the dispute is resolved, while work continues on the expressway.

Baldwin Highway Director Cal Market said the state is trying to negotiate a deal.

He told us, "They (state officials) want an interchange. They've finished with their plans. They've bought the right-of-way. However, their comments are they didn't want to invest the taxpayers money into a project that goes to a privately-owned toll bridge where nobody had any public oversight."

A SECOND BRIDGE?

With negotiations at a stalemate, the state is looking over its options, and even moving forward with designs for a bridge that would be parallel to the toll bridge. That, of course, would set the project back years and costs millions more.

"It's one of those bad situations that hopefully can get resolved one way if the bridge company, if they can figure out a way to work with ALDOT and get that resolved," Market told us.

AMERICAN ROADS NOT RESPONDING

FOX10 News contacted the toll bridge operator, American Roads, but no one there would comment on the controversy.