Jubilee Parkway

Infobox Bridge
bridge_name = Jubilee Parkway

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caption = The Jubilee Parkway as seen from Meaher State Park.
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carries = 4 lanes of Interstate 10
crosses = Mobile Bay
locale = Mobile, Alabama
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design = Girder bridge
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length = convert|7.5|mi|km|1
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open = 1978
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The Jubilee Parkway is a pair of parallel concrete viaduct bridges that carry Interstate 10 across Mobile Bay from the George Wallace Tunnel in Mobile, Alabama eastbound to Spanish Fort/Daphne, Alabama. The bridges are similar in design to the I-10 Twin Span Bridge near New Orleans, Louisiana. Each of the two bridges is two lanes wide, for a total of four lanes, and convert|7.5|mi|km|1 long. The parkway was completed in 1978cite web|title="History"|work="Rivers of Alabama: Mobile Bay"|url=http://www.riversofalabama.org/Mobile%20Bay/M_History.htm|accessdate=2007-12-28] and crosses the northern portion of Mobile Bay, running roughly parallel to the nearby Battleship Parkway.cite web|title="Mobile"|work="Mobile @ SouthEastRoads"|url=http://www.southeastroads.com/mobile.html|accessdate=2007-12-28] It was named for the jubilee phenomena that occurs intermittently in Mobile Bay, but is commonly referred to locally and in the media as the "Bayway".cite web|title="Interstate 10 Eastbound"|work="Alabama: SouthEastRoads"|url=http://www.southeastroads.com/i-010b_al.html|accessdate=2007-12-28]

Controversial expansion

Since 2001, the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) has planned to expand the parkway to a total of eight lanes in addition to a connecting cable-stayed bridge with a main span convert|1250|ft|m|0 long and convert|190|ft|m|0 high that would bypass the George Wallace Tunnel. This is intended to eliminate the current traffic bottleneck on I-10 at the tunnel, but is very controversial locally due to the proposed bridge's potential visual and economic impact on the city. The arguments against the bridge have focused on the bridge's height of roughly convert|500|ft|m|0, taller than any other structure in the city except for the RSA Battle House Tower, as potentially overshadowing the city. The potential economic impact is that, with less than convert|190|ft|m|0 of clearance under the bridge, it would hamper large ships and projects from the Port of Mobile and prevent large cruise ships from accessing the newly built Alabama Cruise Terminal.cite web|title="Bridging the divide or the snarl ahead?"|work="Mobile Bay Times"|url=http://mobilebaytimes.com/bridge.html|accessdate=2007-12-28]

Incidents

On the morning of 20 March 1995 the parkway was the scene of one of the largest multi-vehicle collisions in United States history. The accident involved around 200 vehicles and resulted in more than 90 injuries and 1 death. The causative agent was determined to be fog from Mobile Bay.cite web|title="Performance of Satellite Fog Detection Techniques"|work="National Weather Association"|url=http://www.nwas.org/ej/pdf/2006-EJ3.pdf|accessdate=2007-12-28]

References