I-10 Connector

Seen in the Dothan Eagle:

With the Florida panhandle county of Washington deciding Monday to pass on a proposed toll road, organizers say they will continue with the project and are now focusing on their eastern neighbor, Jackson County. [...]

Washington County held two public meetings about the proposed road, and commissioners faced overflow crowds full of residents concerned about eminent domain, the process through which a government entity can take ownership of private land. Other residents were concerned the limited access road would allow traffic to zip through the county without stopping to patronize local merchants.

The commission voted 3-2 against entering into an agreement with the toll road organizers to bring the road through the county.

The map at left should help illustrate why this is a bit of an inconvenience to connector proponents.

As I understand it (and I should disclaim that I live in Connecticut, am interested because of family ties and roadgeekiness, but might not be getting the full story up here in Yankee-land), the thinking has been that a Dothan/I-10 connector would run a bit to the west of Dothan.   The shortest route from such a point to the beach would run through Washington County.

Failure for connector proponents to secure right of way in the county would mean that the ultimate alignment will be a bit longer than would otherwise be necessary.

Personally, I find the concerns about business drying up in the county a little short-sighted. 

True, today Washington County gets a bit of a tourist traffic flow, from folks taking the “back way” through Enterprise and Bonifay to the beach, and it’s likely that some of those smaller businesses will suffer if traffic is moving through on a tollway.

However, if a new controlled-access highway is going to be built — be it a freeway or a tollway — it stands to reason that much of the traffic now sneaking through Washington County will shift to the new road.

If the new road passes through the county, there’s some opportunity to develop new businesses and services to take advantage of the increased traffic.   But if the road goes elsewhere…so do the development opportunities.

There has been a bit of news over the past several months leaking out of the Wiregrass suggesting that work might finally be moving ahead to get Dothan’s I-10 connector built.

However, judging by this article from the Birmingham News (which I apologize for not mentioning earlier), a few folks have grander plans:

Developers and Wiregrass economic development groups want to build the state’s first toll road that would connect central Alabama to the Florida Panhandle.

Transportation officials and Gov. Bob Riley have had several meetings with the developers proposing a public-private road that could ultimately run from Montgomery to Panama City. [...]

There are no estimates of the cost to build the road, but transportation officials estimate it would be in the billions of dollars.

If the toll road is built, it would replace a connector road proposed by ALDOT from Midland City to I-10.

Having lived in southeast Alabama for a few years, and with my wife’s family tied to the area, I am very familiar with US 231 southeast from Montgomery.  There was a time that I could quite literally drive it in my sleep.

While Dothan probably does need better access to I-10 to bolster its local economy and to aid local traffic flow, I do wonder if upgrading US 231 is overkill.  True, it’s not an expressway and traffic can get bogged down in the traffic lights at Troy and Ozark, but it’s a fine road well-suited to its traffic flow.

But getting approval for tolls to accelerate construction of Dothan’s I-10 connector…that would be something for folks in the Wiregrass to get excited about.