Traffic through the toll booths continues to trend downward in the two months after the Baldwin County Bridge Company raised the price for cash and debit card customers to $5 on Aug. 30.

Through August 2023 monthly traffic exceeded the monthly traffic totals in 2022 but the September total – after the toll was raised – was about 50,000 less than in September of 2022.

In October, that trend continued but traffic declined by nearly 20,000 tolls pushing the annual traffic totals to 4.99 million cars. The bridge company is contractually obligated to build a second two-lane span if traffic totals in June, July and August reach two million cars and the traffic volume for the year reaches a total of six million.

Last year through September, 4.8 million vehicles passed through the toll booth. In the last two months of 2022, a total of 770,229 vehicles went through the toll booth and if that traffic holds up in November and December of this year the 2023 total would be about 5.7 million.

Officials with the Baldwin County Bridge Company say the increase is not an attempt to stem the traffic flow to avoid reaching the contractually obligated totals requiring a second bridge.

President and CEO Neal 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.