How far would you go to make life miserable for someone you had a beef with? Maybe slash their tires or pour paint stripper on their hood? You probably wouldn’t abuse your governmental position to spend $120 million of your state’s money building an unnecessary bridge just to put your arch enemy out of business, right?
But that’s what a U.S. judge has decided happened in a case involving a project to build a multi-million dollar crossing spanning the state’s Intercoastal Waterway. Montgomery, Alabama, Judge Jimmy Pool ruled that Alabama’s transportation director John Cooper pushed ahead with a bridge project in order to put an existing toll bridge company out of business.
Baldwin County Bridge Company, which currently operates a toll bridge giving drivers access to Gulf beaches, filed a suit to stop the construction of the new crossing that is only a mile (1.6 km) away from their own, and the judge obliged. He ordered a halt to the project that was given the go-ahead with the signing of a $52 million contract last year, but was likely to cost more than double that by the time related roads are accounted for.
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“Director Cooper’s outrageous conduct in embarking on spending more than $120 million of state funds, on a bridge that ALDOT does not need, for the purpose of putting a private company out of business shocks the conscience of the Court,” Judge Pool wrote in his ruling.
BCBC says Cooper’s vendetta against it started during his negotiations to reduce toll charges and that the director acted in ‘bad faith,’ not commissioning traffic studies that could have proved the viability of alternatives to the new bridge project.
But Cooper claims that rather than reduce tolls and add lanes to improve congestion, as discussed, the firm increased tolls, and that the new bridge project was greenlit based on traffic data and local support.
The case might not be completely over though because Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) has decided to appeal to Alabama Supreme Court, AP News reports.