Mobile Courant

Mobile County’s flagship road and bridge program is once again up for voter approval in the general election on Nov. 8, 2022. The 2022 Transportation Pay-As-You-Go Program is the last item on the Mobile County ballot entitled Special County Election.

Mobile County’s Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) program is the only one of its kind in the state and it is a model for other communities. Mobile County voters have approved it each of the 18 times it has appeared on a ballot. Voter support is needed once again to continue this primary infrastructure program, particularly as the proposed improvements will help accommodate increased traffic in Mobile County.

Almost $1 billion has been committed to Mobile County’s roads and bridges through the PAYG program since 1977 when the Transportation Pay-As-You-Go Program began directing a 6.5-mil ad valorem assessment, in place since 1924, to specifically identified road and bridge projects that are set before voters for approval.

The 2022 PAYG program proposes committing $73.8 million to improve 73.2 miles of roadways and seven bridges throughout Mobile County. The 2022 PAYG program incorporates federal funding matches of $4.8 million. The remaining $69 million is through the PAYG method of financing road and bridge improvements with no new taxes and no borrowed money because funds are collected in advance of each two-year road program.

See the full 2022 Transportation Pay-As-You-Go Program at https://www.mobilecountyal.gov/uploads/2022PAYGWebDoc.pdf.

The 2022 PAYG program proposes at least one project in each of the County’s 11 municipalities. Some projects are considered benefits to the entire County, for example:

• Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley road work.
• Additional lanes and a bridge on South McGregor Avenue from Airport Boulevard to Dauphin Street,
• Construction of Lumpkin Road, north of Airport Boulevard, to help with population shifts and support future school construction.
• Replacing three bridge culverts over Crystal Springs Branch.

Other projects within districts, like additional lanes on Cottage Hill Road between McFarland Road and Dawes Road and on McFarland Road from Cottage Hill Road to Jeff Hamilton Road, will help with increased traffic flow due to population shifts.

View Mobile County’s sample ballot for the Nov. 8, 2022 general election at https://www.sos.alabama.gov/sites/default/files/sample-ballots/2022/gen/Mobile-Sample.pdf.

All Pay-As-You-Go program engineering reports are available at https://www.mobilecountyal.gov/government/departments/pay-as-you-go/.

 Original source can be found here.