With a lot of questions about the city’s relationship to the toll bridge company in wake of the recent toll increases, we decided to put together a story about the financial relationship between the bridge company and Orange Beach.

Importantly, the city has no control over how much the bridge company can charge. The amount the city collects is a flat per vehicle fee that is unaffected by how much the toll is. The fee was set at ¢30 cents starting in 2014 and remains the same amount today.

When the bridge opened in 2004 the city agreed to loan the company $1.2 million a year while taking the per-vehicle fee. The city paid the interest on the loan. Between 2004 to 2013, the only year the city made its money back was 2006 when it collected just more than the $1.2 million back from the tolls.

After the loan was paid in full, in 2014 Orange Beach began collecting a 30-cent per vehicle toll which will last through the year 2034.

The contract says the bridge company must add a second span if the volume ever reaches 6.5 million cars in one year. The highest traffic total in the history of the bridge was nearly 5.5 million vehicles in 2022 and the city collected nearly $1.7 million, also the highest amount collected by the city.

In the first 10 years of the bridge, the city averaged a loss of about $600,000 annually. Since the yearly loans of $1.2 million stopped in 2013 the city has managed to recoup all losses with a total of $18.5 million collected and revenue after payback is $4.3 million. Income from the tolls is approximately 1 percent of Orange Beach’s total revenue.