For more than three decades, efforts to build a corridor connecting Highway 231 to Interstate 10 in Florida have fallen flat.

The controversial project is still in the works and could be close to actual construction.

Steve Shaw is the president of Focus 2000.
His group is working to make the I-10 corridor a reality.
He says the wait is almost over.

“I see this project moving forward between the next six months to a year,” said Shaw.

Speaking to members of the Dothan Kiwanis club on Tuesday, Shaw explained several recent revisions to the project.

He is hoping to construct an access road just south of Montgomery, connecting interstates 65 and 85, funneling motorists from the Midwest and Northeast into the wiregrass.

“Right now, we're working with the state with the Montgomery outer loop we've moved up there because that phase of that project is ready to go,”

The other phase of the project would take place right here in the wiregrass.

“There is a corridor in south Dale, Houston, Geneva county that the state has proposed and that's the corridor that we would use,”

“It's just north of Midland City then goes to the west of Dothan and then ties back into 231 down by the state line,”

The cost?

Shaw estimates $1.5 to $2 billion for the entire project.

“It'll be a toll road. The revenue from the toll road will pay for the bonds. The bonds will be set up probably from a 30 to 50 year time, it will be paid during that period of time,”

Shaw believes the project will be a big boost to the wiregrass and the southeastern U.S. as a whole.

“What really happens at the end of the day is that we want to be able to provide for more businesses for job creations which helps us all,” said Shaw.

“The southeastern part of the United States is positioned so well because we've got hard working people with wonderful work ethic I think that the climate that we have here is ideal,”

Shaw says the need for the corridor continues to grow.

He says eight million people visit northwest Florida every year and expects that number to increase to 15 million over the next five to 10 years.