MOBILE, Alabama -- A group announced plans for a $7 billion toll road and rail corridor running from Orange Beach to the Tennessee state line this morning, mainly drawing dumbfounded reactions from local and state officials.

"Let me put it this way. I have never heard of these people and I am trying to run down someone who has," said Tony Harris, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Transportation.

Ameri-Metro of York, Pa., said it had agreed to build the project for Alabama Toll Facilities Inc. The corridor would include a giant airport and inland port somewhere in central Alabama, according to an Ameri-Metro statement.

Ameri-Metro, headed by Pennsylvania real estate developer Shah Mathias, said it would start work next year and complete the 300-mile route within five years. He said the biggest supporter of the project in Alabama was “the state itself,” and said he was working closely with economic development officials.

State officials said they had no knowledge of the proposal.

Alabama Toll Facilities, which was incorporated in Cullman in 1993, secured a nonbinding state legislative resolution in 2007 supporting the project. Alabama Toll Facilities said then that it was incorporated as a non-profit and planned to sell bonds to finance the road.

“This project – involving both a railway and road system, as well as an inland port — will greatly impact the immediate and long-term economic outlook for the entire region,” Mathias said in a statement. “Once completed, it will be the largest privately financed inland transportation complex in the nation.”

Ameri-Metro said the inland port would be 4,000 acres, larger than the ThyssenKrupp AG site, and include 19 million square feet of warehouse space. Mathias would only say he was eyeing a location around Birmingham or Montgomery for the port, which would also include an airport with four runways, each 18,000 feet long. That’s nearly twice as long as the main runway at Mobile’s Brookley Field, which at 9,600 feet is one of the region's longest.

The inland port is also supposed to include a 60,000 square-foot “Grand Central Station of the South” that would include shops and a hotel, plus a 100,000 square-foot evacuation center.

In an interview, Mathias said he had been involved with the project for a number of years and said Alabama Toll Facilities had signed over all the rights to Ameri-Metro. He said Ameri-Metro planned to mostly sell the $7 billion in taxable bonds through a private offering.

“Those kind of dollars are really not that much when you’re talking about infrastructure.” Mathias said. He said repeatedly that no tax dollars would be used.

The project is reminiscent of the Trans-Texas corridor, a toll road-and-rail network proposed for Texas. The proposal was scrapped amid intense political opposition, although private developers are building some sectors around Austin and San Antonio.

A group spearheaded by now-Attorney General Luther Strange proposed a private toll road from Montgomery through Dothan to Panama City, Fla., in 2008. The first 36 miles was expected to cost up to $400 million.

Various ideas have also been proposed to build the Baldwin Beach Express to Interstate 10, although Ameri-Metro's name had not surfaced.

"Wow," said Baldwin County Engineer Cal Markert. He said he had heard something about a toll project on Wolf Bay, but was not aware of the details or project described here. Baldwin County commissioners also said they were unaware.

It's not clear how any private toll road builder would secure right-of-way in Alabama. All the toll facilities that exist in Alabama today, including the Foley Beach Express, are privately owned bridges that benefit from connecting public roads. Mathias said the legislative resolution gave Alabama Toll Facilities the power to condemn land. The resolution does not appear to mention that possibility.

Mathias said the group hoped to avoid condemnation procedures. “I’m pretty sure we’re not going to use it if someone is willing to sell.”

Among Ameri-Metro’s directors is Michael Lasky, a Baltimore man who once controlled the Psychic Friends Network.

_____

Staff Reporter Connie Baggett contributed to this report.