Driven by a “personal vendetta” against a toll bridge company, Alabama’s transportation director planned to build an unnecessary bridge across the Intracoastal Waterway at a cost of more than $100 million to the state, according to a judge who ordered construction to stop Wednesday.
Montgomery Circuit Judge Jimmy Pool, siding with the toll bridge company, issued a preliminary injunction ordering a halt to construction of the project.
Pool said trial evidence showed that Transportation Director John Cooper pushed for the new bridge without traffic studies and had only one discussion about it with the governor,
Judge Pool wrote “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.
Baldwin County Bridge Company, which operates the existing toll bridge to get to Gulf beaches, filed a lawsuit seeking to block construction of the new bridge that would be located just over 1 mile away from its existing toll bridge.
