Mobile pike - ENR taken

ENGINEERING NEWS RECORD got taken. They devoted much space (ENR May 1 p16) to a 1,250km (800mi) toll road project Mobile AL to Chicago being promoted by Heidi Ueltzen who has a company called Motivity Inc. She’s located in a remote Appalachian village called Scottsboro in the far northeast corner of AL, and claims to have backing from a major European toll group (unnamed of course) and will complete the project in 7 to 10 years, she says.

The proposal isn’t new. Previous developers have proposed the route - roughly following US-43 Mobile, Tuscaloosa, Florence in AL, TN-13 to Clarksville, US-41 (Pennyrile Pwy) in KY to Evansville IN from where it would follow US-43 just east of the IL line to Gary IN and Chicago. Trouble is the project is midway between two existing free interstates I-55 and I-65, and many places is quite close to the latter. Neither of these freeways is congested. And Mobile isn’t that great a destination.

Earlier feasibility studies have shown little traffic. ENR’s report hyped the route as also supporting highspeed maglev, utilities and a “pumpline for grain.” Maglev? Who wants to go Chicago to Mobile that can’t better use the existing modes? And there’s already a pumpline for grain. It’s called the Mississippi river and its barges.

Of course competition, and alternatives are welcome. But it is extremely difficult competing with uncongested, underpriced, government provided facilities, so promoters of such projects need to have a pretty good story to be taken seriously.