The next governor of Alabama is "going to shut down" the ongoing U.S. Highway 43-State Highway 69 West Alabama Corridor expansion project, according to House Pro-Tem Chris Pringle (R-Mobile).
The project is being paid for with Rebuild Alabama Act funds, a state gas tax increase passed in 2019 by the legislature.
"I've said it before the next governor is going to shut that project down because it has no federal matching funds on it and it's eating all of our gas tax money up. We're throwing good money after bad because of your boss," Pringle said at a Contract Review committee meeting on Thursday.
Clay McBrien, assistant chief engineer for policy and planning at the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT), responded, "It's underway now so we'll see how it works out."
Pringle said, "It might be underway but it's never going to get finished. It's going to get shut down."
"We can't afford to build that highway using nothing but state funds because he refuses to get federal matching funds because he's decided he just doesn't want to do it. I'm not mad at you. I'm just so frustrated with that man [ALDOT Director John Cooper] it's not even funny," Pringle said.
Contract Review committee chair State Sen. Dan Roberts (R-Mountain Brook) placed an up to 45-day hold on an ALDOT legal services contract at the meeting.
Term-limited Governor Kay Ivey, a proponent of the project, has previously described the West Alabama Corridor as a "vital road project to open up economic development" while "improving the lives of thousands of Black Belt residents."
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