FAIRHOPE, Ala. (AP/WIAT) — Update (8/28): Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has called the plan for the Mobile River Bridge “dead” following the Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Transportation Improvement Plan Wednesday.

The meeting was to establish the transportation priorities from 2020-2023 where the bridge project was considered. The Eastern Shore MPO did not choose to prioritize the project.

Gov. Ivey released a statement regarding this decision:

“With the action taken today, there is no pathway forward, and this project is dead. Moreover, without a project, there is no need for a meeting on October 7. I am thereby canceling the Toll Road, Bridge and Tunnel Authority meeting.”

Original (8/28): Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is asking coastal officials to keep a “critical” Mobile Bay bridge project alive as they try to work out concerns about tolls.

Ivey sent a letter Wednesday to the Mobile and Daphne mayors urging them to keep the proposed toll bridge project in the region’s long-range transportation plans. The bridge must be included to qualify for any federal funding.

Opponents say the proposed tolls of up to $6 would hurt working families.

Ivey wrote they will continue to look for a path forward and ways to reduce or eliminate tolls.

Ivey said the project is critical “not only to Mobile and Baldwin Counties, but the entire Gulf Coast Region.”

The Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization is meeting on the project Wednesday.