The ongoing legal battle over building bridges to Alabama’s beaches continued Wednesday with the state’s transportation director testifying that he only spoke to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey once about his intentions to build a new bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in Gulf Shores.

Alabama Department of Transportation Director John Cooper, who chose to build a new two-lane bridge in October over the objections of the owners of a nearby toll bridge, said he last spoke to Ivey about the project in 2017. That one meeting, Cooper said, was to provide Ivey – his only direct boss – with a comprehensive overview of the state’s transportation priorities shortly after she took office.

Related:

“We had a comprehensive session when she became governor,” Cooper said during a bench trail before Montgomery County Judge Jimmy B. Pool. “We do not do that on regular basis. That conversation is with the chief of staff.”

The conversations with Ivey’s chiefs of staff are at the heart of an executive privilege case pending before the Alabama State Supreme Court. At issue is whether text messages and other communications between Cooper and Ivey’s current and former chiefs of staff – Jo Bonner and Liz Fillmore – should be shielded from public viewing.

The pending Supreme Court request is sought by Cooper’s attorneys with Balch & Bingham in Birmingham and was brought up during the testimony before Pool. It offered a brief but rare glimpse of the inner workings of Ivey’s administration.

Cooper’s testimony also capped the civil non-jury trial over whether the ALDOT director acted in “bad faith” while negotiating with the private bridge operator – Baldwin County Bridge Company (BCBC) LLC. The toll bridge, which is adjacent to The Wharf in Orange Beach, is approximately 1.1 miles from the site of the state’s proposed new bridge, which will not be tolled.

BCBC is seeking a preliminary injunction to halt construction of the Gulf Shores bridge. Scott Bridge Company was rewarded an approximately $52 million contract last October to build the new bridge, and the project is currently underway.

Pool’s ruling could come by Friday.

Cooper’s attorney, Dorman Walker, declined comment other than to confirm that the case is headed to the Alabama State Supreme Court.

Cooper has previously called the BCBC lawsuit “frivolous.”

Cooper, as ALDOT’s director, has the sole discretion to decide whether and where the agency can construct a public bridge in Alabama, or a major project like the Intercoastal Waterway bridge. According to legal filings, Cooper “would not proceed without advice from the Governor’s office on significant decisions regarding the project.”

Joe Espy, the attorney representing BCBC, said Cooper’s testimony illustrates that Alabama’s taxpayers will be on the hook for a “$100 million to $150 million” overall new bridge project and that “Governor Ivey was not even made aware of this.”

Espy cited a new resolution, approved Tuesday by the Baldwin County Commission, transferring the title and rights of multiple roadways in Baldwin County to ALDOT for future maintenance and improvements. Included within the resolution are Roscoe Road, Cotton Creek Drive, and the Baldwin and Foley Beach Express. All those roads have long been owned and maintained by the county.

Espy said that maintaining or improving those roads to accommodate the new bridge project will cost “millions” more than the initial contract with Scott Bridge Company. He also estimated the $52 million the state is spending on the Intracoastal Waterway project could fix all deficient bridges that exist in Montgomery, Macon and Baldwin counties combined.

“How many more millions of dollars of taxpayers money you think you will spend on this project without talking to Governor Ivey?” Espy said.

Cooper replied, “I don’t know.”

Cooper testified on Monday that finding a resolution to the traffic congestion on Alabama State Route 59 was a priority of his dating back to when he first became ALDOT director in 2011. He said the concerns he has still exist to this date, in that Route 59 congestion is creating a public safety issue for beachbound travelers.

BCBC and Cooper had been negotiating an alternative to building a new bridge that included, among other things, adding additional lanes to the Foley Beach Express toll bridge and making additional roadway improvements. Also part of the last-minute pitch was an agreement to remove all tolls assessed on Baldwin County residents. Most bridge users are assessed a $2.75 one-way toll.

Cooper said a letter laying out BCBC’s proposal in August 2022 was as a “useless as a screen door on a submarine,” and claimed that the company was not offering a so-called “free” alternative while subjecting the state to “long-term exclusivity that we do not build a competing bridge.”

He noted that the private toll operator, through assessing tolls to visitors, will make around $700 million in revenues over the 50-year lifespan of their proposal. BCBC’s attorney’s claim that the private toll company would be bankrupted if the state moves ahead with its new bridge.

Cooper said he chose to proceed with the new bridge project in 2018, shortly after a public hearing took place in Gulf Shores was attended by people who were mostly in favor of the project. At the time, local mayors and county officials backed the new bridge project.

But in recent years, Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon has voiced his opposition. He has also said his past support for the project was for Cooper to get the bridge company to the table for negotiations.

Under BCBC’s plan in August, Orange Beach would have received $1 million per year for the next 50 years, which is slightly less than what the city is currently getting at $1.2 million per year under a 2004 agreement. That BCBC-Orange Beach agreement allows the city to receive a portion of the tolls through 2063. It also gave the city an option to purchase the bridge, which could take place in 2033.

Kennon has since criticized the state’s project as a “boondoggle” and one that is not effective enough in alleviating traffic into Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. The bridge does not provide a direct connection to the beaches. It would connect from the Foley Beach Express to Canal Road, at which time motorists can veer east into Orange Beach.

The project has the support of Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft, and the rest of the City Council.

Gulf Shores, meanwhile, is moving forward on a project to add an extra lane to Route 59 along the W.C. Holmes Memorial Bridge.

Cooper, during testimony Monday, said the state had examined a lane widening project for Route 59, but stepped away from those considerations sometimes around 2012 or 2013, because it was too costly. A massive overhaul to the Holmes bridge and surrounding properties would have required a significant amount of right-of-way agreements and land acquisitions, Cooper said.

The new bridge project is also proving to be costly. According to past reports, the state has spent around $20 million acquiring property to prepare for construction. Last month, the Alabama State Supreme Court upheld a $3.6 million award to an Orange Beach family who was forced to sell their 21-acre property to accommodate the new bridge.

Despite those efforts, no new bridge or additional bridge lanes have been added to alleviate traffic congestion that is likely to come as the beaches prepare for their summer season.

Cooper is convinced that the state’s new bridge is the solution, and that traffic will flow to it once it opens.

“It will become necessary to do what we are doing,” he said. “I remain convinced of that.”