Jubilee Parkway, Road bridge across Mobile Bay, Alabama, US
The Jubilee Parkway is a pair of parallel concrete viaduct bridges carrying Interstate 10 across the northern part of Mobile Bay, from the George Wallace Tunnel on Blakeley Island to Spanish Fort and Daphne. Each bridge is two lanes wide, four lanes in total, and 7.5 miles (12.1 km) long. The light gray decks rest on closely spaced vertical concrete piers, with a low concrete parapet above and streetlights on thin curved arms along the outer edges.
Construction began in October 1974. The section between US 90/98 at Battleship Parkway and US 98 in Spanish Fort opened on July 28, 1977; the eastbound span to the George Wallace Tunnel was dedicated on March 20, 1978, and the westbound lanes opened on May 2, 1978. Since 2001 ALDOT has planned an eight-lane expansion with a cable-stayed bridge bypassing the tunnel.
The name comes from the jubilee, a Mobile Bay event in which fish and crustaceans crowd the shallows; locals and media call the crossing the "Bayway". The parkway runs roughly parallel to the older Battleship Parkway, with which it has an interchange.
The Bayway carries four lanes of Interstate 10 between the George Wallace Tunnel on Blakeley Island and Spanish Fort/Daphne. Fog over Mobile Bay has closed or slowed the crossing, and ice storms can shut it for hours, diverting traffic onto the Battleship Parkway causeway. There is an interchange with Battleship Parkway partway across.
A tragic event occurred in 1995 when thick fog over the bay led to one of the largest multi-vehicle accidents in American history involving around 200 vehicles. This accident highlighted the importance of safety measures during poor visibility on long crossings.
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