The director of the Alabama Department of Transportation “acted in bad faith” and attempted to put a “private company out of business” while pursuing a $120 million alternative bridge in Gulf Shores while concealing his efforts from the public, a Montgomery County judge ruled in a blistering 80-page order released Wednesday.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Jimmy Pool ordered that all construction of a new bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in Gulf Shores be stopped. He derisively called that project, “Cooper Bridge.” The judge then criticized the ALDOT director of engaging in a “years’ long campaign” to put the Baldwin County Bridge Company — the longtime owners and operators of the Foley Beach Express toll bridge adjacent to The Wharf — out of business.

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“Director Cooper’s outrageous conduct in embarking on spending more than $120 million of State funds, on a bridge that ALDOT does not need, for the purpose of putting a private company out of business shocks the conscience of the Court,” Pool wrote in his order.

Pool also noted that Cooper testified that he “has never spoken” with Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey about “his new bridge project,” but then backtracked, claiming he mentioned the project once to the governor in 2017, when she first took office.

“He has not spoken a single word to the Governor about the Cooper Bridge in six years,” Pool wrote.

ALDOT, in a statement, said it will file a notice of appeal with the Alabama State Supreme Court.

“We are disappointed in the decision because it’s clear that a new, free bridge is needed to help alleviate traffic congestion and offer a new evacuation option to residents and visitors to Alabama’s Gulf Coast,” said ALDOT spokesperson Tony Harris. “Years of negotiations with the private toll bridge company failed to deliver a solution. The public benefit of a new, free bridge should outweigh the interests of the private toll bridge company.”

Pool’s order comes about two weeks after the conclusion of a bench trial in which Cooper took the stand and defended a decision he made last year to proceed with a new two-lane bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in Gulf Shores, approximately 1.1 miles west of the BCBC toll bridge.

A $52 million contract was awarded to the Scott Bridge Company last October to build the new structure, though estimates for the complete project are expected to be around $100 million or more.

Pool said the decision to build the Gulf Shores project occurred “without conducting a single public meeting” or “conducting a single traffic study showing whether there was a legitimate need for it.” The last public hearing into a bridge project in coastal Alabama, which Cooper did not personally attended, was on November 15, 2018.

BCBC, which had been seeking the injunction to halt construction, was negotiating with Cooper up until August 2022, on an expansion project to their toll bridge. The BCBC alternative included, among other things, adding additional lanes to the toll bridge and making additional roadway improvements. Also part of the 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, during his testimony earlier this month, said the BCBC proposal in August 2022 was as “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.”

Pool seemed to believe that BCBC’s approach was sensible, saying the company offered to build two new lanes over its bridge, expand the number of toll plazas and make $70 million in additional infrastructure improvements for Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, and ALDO.

Pool said that one of Cooper’s own experts admitted, during the trial, that BCBC’s proposal would alleviate traffic off Route 59. Pool also said that the project would save taxpayers $120 million, and that the money could be used on “other pressing infrastructure projects throughout the State of Alabama.”

Said Pool, “That refusal is a telltale sign of Director Cooper’s bad faith and shows that his new bridge is not about alleviating traffic congesting on the Highway 59 bridge,” Pool said.

This story was updated at 1:54 p.m. on May 17, 2023, with a statement from ALDOT.