Residents in coastal Alabama are gearing up for a busy year of road projects, including closure of a major thoroughfare in Mobile and the beginning of the highly anticipated Mobile River Bridge and Bayway replacement project.

In Mobile, The Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) is about 50% completed with widening Interstate 10 between Exit 10 (Bayou La Batre, Dawes) and Exit 15 (Theodore, Tillmans Corner). That project cost around $25 million.

That leads into another project, the Mobile River Bridge project, which is anticipated to begin in early 2024, part of a larger plan to build a new bridge and Bayway. The project, which is the most expensive road project in Alabama history, is expected to cost $2.7 billion. Though it missed out on the federal Mega grant, last week it was announced that the project would be one of only a few projects in the country that would receive technical grant assistance from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

ALDOT is also continuing its extension of State Road 158 from Saraland to the Mississippi state line. That project is anticipated to be completed by the end of this year and has been in the works since 2017. When it is completed, the road will connect to U.S. Highway 98.

Starting later this month, McGregor Avenue from Dauphin Street to Airport Boulevard will be closed to traffic, as it is completely reconstructed. The street will be closed for 2-3 years and is expected to cost $15 million.