September traffic volumes for the Beach Express toll bridge in 2023 are down more than 50,000 compared to the traffic volume of September 2022. The city’s portion of the toll collections dropped by more than $15,000 compared to the same month in 2022.

September is the first month of 2023 when traffic volume did not exceed 2022 totals. Every month of 2023 through August had a higher traffic volume than every month in 2022. The numbers are part of the Financial Director’s report on the regular session agenda for the Nov. 7 council meeting.

It is also the first full month of data following the Aug. 30 toll increase for cash and debit cards to $5. Electronic rates for prepaid account holders, the rates paid by many local residents of South Baldwin County, were increased by $0.20 to an average rate of $2.22. The discounted electronic rate for Orange Beach residents will not be increased and will remain $1.

Baldwin County Bridge Company President and CEO Neal Belitsky said the increase in tolls had nothing to do with stemming the volume of traffic to avoid reaching two thresholds that would contractually obligate the company to build a second two-lane span next to the current toll bridge.

“I refer you to my statement of Aug. 30, 2023, which explains in detail why BCBC was forced to increase rates,” Belitsky said in an email.

Those threshold volumes are two million cars during the months of June, July and August and a yearly total of six million. During 2022, the total was just under 5.6 million and the three summer months saw 1.6 million cars go through the tolls.

In 2023, 1.7 million cars went through the toll plaza in the three summer months and through September the volume was more than 4.5 million. Through September, the city’s portion of 30 cents per car totaled more than $1.3 million. When the toll is increased Orange Beach’s portion stays a 30 cents per car.

Belitsky said the increase was caused by the Alabama Department of Transportation Director John Cooper saying Cooper would not accept the company’s offer to build a second two-lane span if the state canceled plans for a free bridge about a mile west of his company’s toll bridge.

“Now, as a result of the actions taken by Director Cooper, BCBC has been forced to increase the toll rates on the Beach Express Bridge,” Belitsky said.

BCBC had won a stop-work order from a Montgomery County judge in May halting the Scott Bridge Company’s work on the span across the Intracoastal Waterway. The company said – and Judge Jimmy Poole agreed – that Cooper acted in “bad faith” in negotiations over a second toll span. The Alabama Supreme rescinded that order on Aug. 25 and a toll increase was announced four days later.