The director of the state’s transportation department has been on a mission to destroy the operators of a private toll bridge in Baldwin County for years, according to a new civil lawsuit filed Thursday in Montgomery Circuit Court.

The 25-page complaint filed by attorneys representing the Baldwin County Bridge Company LLC (BCBC) is the latest twist in an ongoing dispute over the construction of new bridge lanes to help alleviate congestion to Alabama’s beaches.

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The lawsuit takes aim at Alabama Department of Transportation Director John Cooper, and his role in overseeing the process to construct a new bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway. The lawsuit alleges that Cooper “abused his position” as the head of the agency for the past 9 years, and claims he has a “personal vendetta” against the Bridge Company, and that he was attempting to bankrupt the company.

The complaint also alleges that Cooper, for the past four years, negotiated with BCBC in bad faith as the state has sought to add additional lanes to coastal Alabama, which continues to see a surge in visitors each year and additional traffic congestion.

An ALDOT spokesman said the agency has not yet seen the complaint.

‘Unnecessary’ bridge

The complaint also claims that ALDOT’s newest project – a two-lane bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in Gulf Shores and 1.1 miles west of the toll bridge in Orange Beach – is “unnecessary” and is being constructed without any prior traffic studies.

“Director Cooper’s cavalier abuse of power of his office, including the decision to bully BCBC into lowering its tolls and ultimately giving up its bridge, proceed with the new, unnecessary bridge, attempt to condemn BCBC’s property and the property of other Alabamians, and destroy or substantially undermine the value (of the toll bridge) has directly and severely harmed BCBC,” the lawsuit filed by attorney Joe Espy III reads.

The complaint seeks a judge to file an injunction to prohibit the construction of the new Intracoastal Waterway Bridge.

It also accuses Cooper and ALDOT of pursuing an “inverse condemnation” against the Bridge Company, which is done whenever a government entity seeks to obtain control of property without formal condemnation proceedings and without compensation. BCBC is seeking compensatory damages and other related expenses.

The lawsuit’s filing comes four days after Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft, during Monday’s Gulf Shores City Council meeting, announced that ALDOT was executing a contract to begin construction of the new Intracoastal Waterway Bridge.

ALDOT then confirmed on Tuesday that it was issuing a “notice to proceed” with Opelika-based Scott Bridge Company for $51.85 million. A provision within the notice signified that the project was set to begin next week, and a deadline for completion set for January 1, 2026.

The new two-lane Intracoastal Waterway Bridge is expected to be only the third leading motorists onto Alabama’s Pleasure Island area of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. The other two are W.C. Holmes Memorial Bridge (Alabama State Route 59) and the toll bridge.

The new bridge project has created a rift between the leaders of Alabama’s two coastal cities. It’s supported by Craft, but Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon – during interviews in recent months – has labeled it a “boondoggle” that will not alleviate traffic congestion because the bridge does not include a direct path to the beaches. The new bridge would end on Alabama State Route 180, or Canal Road.

The BCBC lawsuit argues that without a direct route to the beaches, the traffic across the new bridge “would add to the congestion on Canal Road/(Route) 180 on the south side of the Intracoastal Waterway, not lessen it.”

The BCBC lawsuit claims that Cooper OK’d the construction of the new bridge without traffic studies, or studies to verify whether past claims about toll avoidance were true.

Cooper, in past years, claimed that motorists were avoiding the toll bridge because they did not want to pay a toll fee, and led to higher congestion along Route 59.

“ALDOT could have performed a host of studies to ascertain whether or not vehicles were in fact taking the detour Director Cooper posited due to a desire to avoid tolls,” the lawsuit states. “But ALDOT did not perform any of these studies and made no effort to ascertain the traffic flow in the area.”

Alternative plan & agreements

BCBC had been pushing for ALDOT to OK its alternative plan, which was pitched publicly on September 1.

Under that proposal, an additional bridge span would be built along the toll bridge as long as the new Intracoastal Waterway Bridge was not built. BCBC also pitched making additional roadway and signage improvements, construct and expanded toll plaza with multiple lanes, as well as other infrastructure improvements.

As part of the plan, the Bridge Company agreed to removal all tolls assessed on Baldwin County residents. Most bridge users are assessed a $2.75 one-way toll fare.

The lawsuit also claims that ALDOT is attempting to undo previous agreements BCBC entered with the cities of Orange Beach and Foley and the Baldwin County Commission, to build the toll bridge. The toll bridge was opened in 2000.

The agreements began in the late 1990s, and one of them provided BCBC with the right at any and all times – and its absolute and sole discretion – to expand the toll bridge by constructing additional lanes.

In 1999, the “Tri-Party Agreement” was entered into that gave BCBC “perpetual” rights to collect tolls and determine the toll fares on its bridge.

A subsequent “Access Management Plan” then required that before any new access points to the Foley Beach Express are constructed, “a professionally recognized traffic consultant with toll facility and/or traffic engineering experience … will review all applications for connectivity to the project,” the lawsuit states.

The complaint alleges that the toll bridge has not reached volumes to warrant a new span across the Intracoastal Waterway, a notion that has been disputed within the coastal area that is inundated with traffic jams during peak tourism months.

If a threshold of 2 million vehicles over the summoner months is reached – or 6 million vehicles during a year — the complaint says that BCBC is “obligated” to construct a new span at no cost to the state or Orange Beach.

“In other words, a solution to traffic congestion that does not include Cooper’s new bridge has been contractually addressed,” the complaint states.

The complaint says that Cooper, during negotiations in recent years, said he felt the original agreements with the local government agencies and with BCBC represented a “bad deal” that he “subjectively disliked.”