Dive Brief:

• Supporters of replacing the Wallace Tunnel under the Mobile River in Mobile, Alabama, with a six-lane bridge are shouting about a study by a University of Southern Alabama professor that concludes a six-year building project could bring $1.5 million to the area.
• The report is not even public yet, but leaders of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce's "Build the Bridge" Coalition and  the Coastal Alabama Partnership talked with local officials and said Prof. Donald Epley would expand to the study to look at the benefits for the eight-county Mobile metro area.
• The Federal Highway Administration, which has selected a preferred bridge route and is proposing it, projects $363.3 in "construction benefits."

Dive Insight:

The FHWA's number comes from a 2006 study by Semoon Chang, who is the founder of the Gulf Coast Center for Impact Studies. His analysis was based on a $650 million project cost. Current estimates are $850 million.