Leaders tout economic, safety benefits of proposed West Alabama Highway

Aimed at breaking up a funding jam for the West Alabama Highway, an assemblage of local and regional shakers and movers spoke Thursday morning about why the project should roll on, primarily because of its economic and safety benefits.

Kyle South, CEO and president of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama hosted a news conference at the chamber's offices in downtown Tuscaloosa, inviting Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, state Sen. Gerald Allen, state Rep. Chris England, Fayette Mayor Rod Northam, Thomasville Mayor Sheldon A. Day, state Rep. A.J. McCampbell, state Rep. Cynthia Almond, state Rep. Bill Lamb, state Rep. Ron Bolton, and business and civic leaders including David Pass and Blake Miles, among others.

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In addition to a wider, safer drive, a four-lane highway would allow greater ease of access for companies wishing to do business in currently underserved counties.

"We all know that infrastructure investment is the first step to economic development success," South said, "while not having those assets limits, if not eliminates, the possibility of growth and prosperity."

Currently, the roughly two-hour trek from Tuscaloosa to Thomasville, across state highways 69 and 5, and U.S. 43, winds down often-narrow, usually rugged two-lane roads, un- or poorly lit, passing through farm land, a scattering of small towns and undeveloped rural areas.

The projected new highway would be built in Tuscaloosa, Marengo, Clarke and Hale counties, beginning in Thomasville, from the intersection of 43 and 5 to the Linden bypass, and on 69 from Linden bypass to north of Moundville, including bypasses at Dixons Mills, Greensboro, Gallion and Moundville.

The West Alabama Highway Project, which would connect the Black Belt to the interstate, and make a four-lane jaunt from Tuscaloosa to the gulf coast area, was announced by Gov. Kay Ivey Nov. 12, 2021.

But earlier this summer, Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth spoke out against funding that project now, saying the state needs to focus first on widening I-65.

Then in September state Sen. Chris Elliott, from Baldwin County, which includes Gulf Shores, Fairhope and Orange Beach, put a hold on funding for design work, noting ALDOT's estimates ranged widely, from about $800 million to $1.1 billion.

Clay McBrien, ALDOT assistant chief engineer, said exact estimates were difficult to create, given the varying stages of the plan. Elliott also expressed concern the highway project would be financed by bonds repaid over time from the 10-cent per gallon gas tax increase approved in 2019. That Rebuild Alabama Act legislation allows 50% of projected revenue from the tax to be committed for bond debt.

In response to Elliott's hold, Rep. England — both men sit on the Legislative Contract Review Committee — put a hold on about a dozen other ALDOT projects. Such holds run 45 days, after which the governor can approve the funding or not, no matter what the committee says. As holds were granted in September, they're about up.

England averred there was far less penny-pinching over the $2.7 billion bridge project in Mobile, and a recently-announced expansion to I-65, suggesting the difference linked to ongoing failures to address the needs of poorer, rural Alabamians.

Maddox, who has family from Clarke County, and traveled extensively throughout the Black Belt in 2017-2018, while running for governor on the Democratic ticket, said the region has catching up to do.

"In this project, as laid out by the governor, and the Legislature, (it) begins to turn the page on much-needed investment, in an area of the state that's gone decades without it," he said.

Rebuild Alabama was passed with a promise to deliver this corridor, Maddox said, a dream that's been around for decades. As for the idea I-65 should take precedence, "Let's not make one project mutually exclusive of the other," Maddox said. The state can find ways to get both done, he said.

Introducing England, South thanked him for "standing in the gap." England raised empty hands, and joked "I'm not here to hold anything up.

"I've said it before ... I know how to act a fool when I need to," he said. "But when it comes to fighting for our constituency, I will continue to do so."

He underscored what Maddox said about moving forward on multiple plans.

"We can do more than one thing at one time," he said. "When the governor of the state of Alabama says we're going to invest millions of dollars in an area of the state which has been historically neglected, and denied this sort of opportunity, it is a signal to other people that it's OK to invest on the west side of Alabama as well."

Another ALDOT corridor project would connect Fayette to I-22 via four-lane highway. Northam, Fayette's mayor, said that would benefit the city's industrial parks, leading to more jobs, helping people stay home and stay safe.

"To give them a better means of getting in and out of Fayette, and other communities all along the corridor, it's going to improve safety," he said. "You'll have more assurance that they're going to come home safe that night, and they will not have that wreck that they'd have on the curvy two-lane roads....

"We want the same things in rural Alabama that everybody else does. We want a good quality of life for our citizens."

Thomasville Mayor Day said that since the road south of Thomasville, running to Mobile, has gone all four-lane, there's been billions in investment along that corridor, and that 22,000 cars pass through the 3,548 population city daily.

"I love rural Alabama. I think it's cool to be rural," Day said. "I did something that a lot of people don't do. I actually researched the bill. I read the bill. ...

"I want to thank the legislators and senators here today and all those who voted for this (Rebuild Alabama) act, because you gave us a shot. You gave us a shot to lift ourselves up."

He added that chambers and other leaders from all along West Alabama will be discussing how to make best use of the infrastructure's potential.

Rep. McCampbell projected the potential by example of Maryland-based Enviva Inc., constructing its 11th wood pellet production facility in Epes, Sumter County, on a 300-acre plot along the Tombigbee River. That spot was chosen for its water access, which will allow Enviva to send product to the port of Mobile, where it's shipped to markets in Europe and Asia, for use as renewable fuel sources. River traffic made that investment happen, McCampbell said. Four-lane traffic could bring in even more over land.

Safety issues can't be over-emphasized, he added. His daughter landed a prime job at the Mercedes-Benz U.S. Internatnional Plant in Vance, but tried for a time to commute, until late one night she suffered an accident on a two-lane highway. Fortunately, she wasn't badly hurt.

"She then decided, for my safety, for my life, I need to move. So she reloacted, after trying to hang on down there, in the area she was raised," he said.

His colleagues in the Legislature don't seem to acknowledge the need for the whole state to thrive, he said.

"When you talk about West Alabama, it's always 'We need to do a study.' You done studied me enough," he said.

"You ought to know every bit of my body. So I'm tired of being studied. I'm ready for you to actually start feeding me."

Reach Mark Hughes Cobb at mark.cobb@tuscaloosanews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Leaders make case for funding West Alabama Highway corridor