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[codyg1985]

That is the only place I have seen them in the Mobile area, did you note them anywhere else?

I noticed one exiting off I-65 north onto US 98. There is a painted shield for the U-turn lane that takes you to the west service road and, ultimately, to I-65 south: http://g.co/maps/gbr9j

[Alex]

That is the only place I have seen them in the Mobile area, did you note them anywhere else?

I noticed one exiting off I-65 north onto US 98. There is a painted shield for the U-turn lane that takes you to the west service road and, ultimately, to I-65 south: http://g.co/maps/gbr9j

Ah yes, forgot about those. Once they reconfigured the intersection of I-65 East Service Road and US 98 (Moffett Road) to incorporate a protected right-hand turn, I stopped using that exit. But looking through my photos, there they were before the second right-hand turn lane was configured from November 2008:

[codyg1985]

Alabama is going to be using GARVEE bonds to perform some maintenance projects across the state.

Governor Bentley Announces More than 100 Road and Bridge Projects as Part of ATRIP Initiative

[froggie]

Not sure that's such a good idea, especially when a state gets to a point where all their Federal highway funding is going to pay back the "GARVEE" bonds.

I also noticed that, except for 2 turn lane projects, all the projects on the list are for county or local roads.

[codyg1985]

Not sure that's such a good idea, especially when a state gets to a point where all their Federal highway funding is going to pay back the "GARVEE" bonds.

I also noticed that, except for 2 turn lane projects, all the projects on the list are for county or local roads.

Yeah, I am not that impressed with it myself so far. If they are going to use GARVEE bonds, then at least use them for larger projects that can have more of a return on investment. I also agree that we shouldn't over-rely on these bonds. It isn't a sure thing if that money will ever get here to pay back those bonds.

[bdmoss88]

Just wondering, any updates on the US 82 project to go around Centreville?

Went through Centreville this weekend. Finally some activity showing on the east end of this around county rd 20. For a long time there was only a couple of culverts that had been built but now there are trees being cleared and road bed being graded. Maybe it won't be too long now for this section to open up and shave a few minutes off my trips that go through there.

[Grzrd]

This editiorial opines that the project has "died with a whimper":

The long-proposed Memphis-Huntsville-Atlanta freeway died with a whimper last week when remaining old money from federal highway earmarks was redirected toward regular road work.
Alabama's portion of unused earmarks - $51 million including $14.8 million for the Memphis-Atlanta project - is the highest of any state from $473 million the Obama administration has identified nationally ....
No other highway project in Alabama since the decades-old I-65 project was as grandiose as the proposed Memphis-Atlanta freeway that would cut across North Alabama.
And none fell so hard ....
The completed Memphis-Huntsville-Atlanta freeway would have required $500 million or so in state highway matching money for federal aid projects.
Even with the state match spread out over years, it would have taken considerable clout to route significant money toward the Memphis-Atlanta project with so many other state transportation needs.
Then there was the issue of route approval. Corridor plans finally took shape, including the stretch through Redstone Arsenal known as Patriot Parkway. Heightened security concerns after the 911 terrorist strikes nixed access across Redstone, forcing state highway planners back to the drawing board.
Meanwhile, interest from Georgia and Mississippi waned. Georgia committed to upgrade Georgia 20 and other highways that would be links. But segments near Atlanta hit snags from concerns over ozone issues from increased emissions.
Mississippi didn't have the same motivation as Alabama. Officials there expressed concern over adding projects that would siphon money from existing projects, including the costly four-laning of U.S. 72 linking Huntsville to Memphis.
There were also political pressures down state to keep Memphis-Atlanta traffic along U.S. 78 through Tupelo and via Corridor X. Indeed, Alabama's completion of Corridor X may have been the death knell for the more northern Memphis-Huntsville-Atlanta freeway that needed full political pull across its breadth.
Will this project resurface? Possibly, but we won't predict when.

Oh well, a good US 72/Corridor V/link to Atlanta expressway is still probably feasible.

[codyg1985]

This editiorial opines that the project has "died with a whimper":

The long-proposed Memphis-Huntsville-Atlanta freeway died with a whimper last week when remaining old money from federal highway earmarks was redirected toward regular road work.
Alabama's portion of unused earmarks - $51 million including $14.8 million for the Memphis-Atlanta project - is the highest of any state from $473 million the Obama administration has identified nationally ....
No other highway project in Alabama since the decades-old I-65 project was as grandiose as the proposed Memphis-Atlanta freeway that would cut across North Alabama.
And none fell so hard ....
The completed Memphis-Huntsville-Atlanta freeway would have required $500 million or so in state highway matching money for federal aid projects.
Even with the state match spread out over years, it would have taken considerable clout to route significant money toward the Memphis-Atlanta project with so many other state transportation needs.
Then there was the issue of route approval. Corridor plans finally took shape, including the stretch through Redstone Arsenal known as Patriot Parkway. Heightened security concerns after the 911 terrorist strikes nixed access across Redstone, forcing state highway planners back to the drawing board.
Meanwhile, interest from Georgia and Mississippi waned. Georgia committed to upgrade Georgia 20 and other highways that would be links. But segments near Atlanta hit snags from concerns over ozone issues from increased emissions.
Mississippi didn't have the same motivation as Alabama. Officials there expressed concern over adding projects that would siphon money from existing projects, including the costly four-laning of U.S. 72 linking Huntsville to Memphis.
There were also political pressures down state to keep Memphis-Atlanta traffic along U.S. 78 through Tupelo and via Corridor X. Indeed, Alabama's completion of Corridor X may have been the death knell for the more northern Memphis-Huntsville-Atlanta freeway that needed full political pull across its breadth.
Will this project resurface? Possibly, but we won't predict when.

Oh well, a good US 72/Corridor V/link to Atlanta expressway is still probably feasible.

That is pretty much done between Memphis and I-24 at South Pittsburg, TN. There are some places where upgrades are needed, but one can drive from Memphis to Atlanta via Huntsville on a four-lane road the entire way, with the exception of a two-lane portion of US 72 in Mississippi southeast of Collierville.

[codyg1985]

I was messing around with the traffic function in Google Maps to look at Alabama's four largest cities and their traffic patterns on their freeway system. None of this is by any means as comprehensive as a traffic study; just some observations from patterns that Google Maps shows at different times of the day. These may not be entirely accurate either, or it may be biased towards more recent data, which could skew results. With that said, overall, it seems like Birmingham/Hoover and Mobile have worse traffic than Huntsville/Decatur and Montgomery. Some other observations:

- I would rank Mobile as actually having the worst traffic of all four due to the bottleneck of the Wallace Tunnel on I-10. Remove that, and Mobile's traffic situation would seem to improve. Due to tourist traffic (I assume) I-10 between Tillman's Corner and Daphne has some congested spots during the weekends. Of course, the Wallace Tunnel bottleneck is worse during the weekends because of this.

- Montgomery seems to mostly not have any bottlenecks on its interstate system with the exception of I-65 northbound out of Montgomery towards Prattville on Friday afternoons. Why are we spending all of this money on a bypass of Montgomery where that money could be better used elsewhere?

- Birmingham's largest problem is I-65 from I-20/59 south to US 31 in Alabaster. There seems to also be congestion along I-59 near Trussville from the Clay/Chalkville to I-459. Congestion on I-65 northbound and southbound at I-459 can cause traffic to back up along the ramps in the I-65/459 interchange.

- In Birmingham, there seems to be a backup along Red Mountain Expressway (or Elton B. Stephens Expressway, whatever is your cup of tea) (US 31/280) going north to the ramp to I-20/59 west/southbound. The section between that interchange and I-65 seems to get congested as well.

- In Birmingham, the I-20 westbound to I-20/59 southbound movement gets congested due to the sharpness of the ramp.

- Huntsville/Decatur shows a bottleneck along I-65 at the Tennessee River bridge, but I don't think this is entirely accurate because a lot of the recent data included the lane closures along the bridge for maintenance work.

- Most of Huntsville's problems are at the interchanges themselves (I-565/AL 255/Madison Pike and I-565/Memorial Pkwy/US 72, and yes I consider that one large interchange complex). Memorial Pkwy is quite congested at rush hour between US 72 and Airport Road, but this isn't reflected as much with Google's logged data.

[Alex]

Montgomery Outer Loop Project update

The story indicates that the project between Vaughn Road (SR 110) and I-85 is 33% complete. Pier supports and girders are already going up, and the bridge deck over SR 110 is in place. Work continues until December 2014.

The video indicated that there are plans to extend the loop northward to Elmore County (first I have heard of this), but that the current interchange design does not include any ramps for that direction.

[codyg1985]

It's a clear field now, but this will be the main roadway for the Montgomery Outer Loop. A loop that officials say is on time for construction completion in December of 2014. Then there will be another two years of road paving before the loop is ready for traffic in late 2016.

Badly-worded article...

[Alex]

It's a clear field now, but this will be the main roadway for the Montgomery Outer Loop. A loop that officials say is on time for construction completion in December of 2014. Then there will be another two years of road paving before the loop is ready for traffic in late 2016.

Badly-worded article...

The reporter also said it was the I-185 extension. 

From the ALDOT site: http://aldotapps.dot.state.al.us/MOL/

Under a $66 million contract awarded by the Alabama Department of Transportation, Bessemer-based R.R. Dawson
Bridge Co. will realign portions of U.S. Highway 80 and State Route 126, make ramp changes at the Waugh Exit on
I-85, and build a series of overpasses and bridges. The project, which began September 28, 2011, is scheduled for
completion in December 2014.

[The High Plains Traveler]

As someone from far outside the region who this month for the first time drove U.S. 98 from Mississippi into Alabama, can anyone explain why U.S. 98 goes from an expressway in Mississippi into a cow path in Alabama? Overstatement to be sure, but that was a pretty drastic change in highway quality at the state line, especially when I saw the orphan bridge just inside Mississippi that waits to connect to the other carriageway in Alabama. What is the concept for U.S. 98 into Mobile and connecting to I-65?

[Alex]

As someone from far outside the region who this month for the first time drove U.S. 98 from Mississippi into Alabama, can anyone explain why U.S. 98 goes from an expressway in Mississippi into a cow path in Alabama? Overstatement to be sure, but that was a pretty drastic change in highway quality at the state line, especially when I saw the orphan bridge just inside Mississippi that waits to connect to the other carriageway in Alabama. What is the concept for U.S. 98 into Mobile and connecting to I-65?

A new four-lane alignment is planned to run from that unused second bridge at the Esctawpa River and state line east to bypass Wilmer and Semmes. Grading was completed on a good portion of this project before money ran out in 2009.

Alabama 158, from Schillinger Road east to U.S. 45 was opened in 2008 as a four-lane divided highway with a 65 mph speed limit. The existing road (Industrial Pkwy) was twinned from U.S. 45 east to I-65/Exit 13 as well. Both of these projects were undertaken for the eventual realignment of U.S. 98 away from Moffett Road.

No work has been done on the new U.S. 98 from Schillinger Road west to a point east of Glenwood Road. This includes a connector from the Wilmer Bypass to Moffett Road at Semmes.

My map of the corridor:



The project web site (not updated in quite some time):
http://www.safe98.com/

[codyg1985]

I noticed that along the graded portion there are a lot of intersecting roads where the new road wasn't graded in. Are bridges going in at those locations later, or are they going to come back and regrade those as at-grade intersections?

[Alex]

I noticed that along the graded portion there are a lot of intersecting roads where the new road wasn't graded in. Are bridges going in at those locations later, or are they going to come back and regrade those as at-grade intersections?

Probably left those alone to reduce disruptions to existing traffic. The only grade separation planned that I am aware of is a one-quadrant interchange at CR-63. This was originally envisioned as a full interchange, but that was scaled back to save on funding. Not sure what the plans are now considering that the main roadway is now unfunded.

Further east, I have seen maps with a diamond interchange at AL-217 and a trumpet for CR-31. Those may have been scaled back.

[Ace10]

As someone from far outside the region who this month for the first time drove U.S. 98 from Mississippi into Alabama, can anyone explain why U.S. 98 goes from an expressway in Mississippi into a cow path in Alabama? Overstatement to be sure, but that was a pretty drastic change in highway quality at the state line, especially when I saw the orphan bridge just inside Mississippi that waits to connect to the other carriageway in Alabama. What is the concept for U.S. 98 into Mobile and connecting to I-65?

US 90 does the same thing at the MS-AL state line. US 90 is a four-lane divided highway for most of its length (except for west/south of MS 607, where MS 607 continues westward as a four-lane divided highway) in Mississippi, but squeezes down to two lanes right before you cross into Alabama. I figure the traffic counts are low enough where Alabama doesn't feel the need to expand it to four lanes. US 90 in western Alabama doesn't seem to go through many big commercial or industrial areas that aren't already easily accessible via I-10, whereas in Mississippi it stays very close to the coast (in Harrison county) and goes through Ingalls (or what used to be Ingalls) near Pascagoula and the port of Gulfport.

I can't really speak for US 98. It does seem like a major corridor for Memphis/Jackson/Hattiesburg traffic to Mobile, and if I were traveling that corridor, I'd want it to be four lanes as well, or at least have a parallel freeway next to it.

[NE2]

I figure the traffic counts are low enough where Alabama doesn't feel the need to expand it to four lanes.

Or maybe Alabama built their section of I-10 first?

[kendancy66]

As someone from far outside the region who this month for the first time drove U.S. 98 from Mississippi into Alabama, can anyone explain why U.S. 98 goes from an expressway in Mississippi into a cow path in Alabama? Overstatement to be sure, but that was a pretty drastic change in highway quality at the state line, especially when I saw the orphan bridge just inside Mississippi that waits to connect to the other carriageway in Alabama. What is the concept for U.S. 98 into Mobile and connecting to I-65?

US 90 does the same thing at the MS-AL state line. US 90 is a four-lane divided highway for most of its length (except for west/south of MS 607, where MS 607 continues westward as a four-lane divided highway) in Mississippi, but squeezes down to two lanes right before you cross into Alabama. I figure the traffic counts are low enough where Alabama doesn't feel the need to expand it to four lanes. US 90 in western Alabama doesn't seem to go through many big commercial or industrial areas that aren't already easily accessible via I-10, whereas in Mississippi it stays very close to the coast (in Harrison county) and goes through Ingalls (or what used to be Ingalls) near Pascagoula and the port of Gulfport.

I can't really speak for US 98. It does seem like a major corridor for Memphis/Jackson/Hattiesburg traffic to Mobile, and if I were traveling that corridor, I'd want it to be four lanes as well, or at least have a parallel freeway next to it.

Also realize that I-10 in AL was built before I-10 in MS. It ended at that same place, the AL/MS border and westbound I-10 traffic transitioned from interstate in AL to US-90 in MS for many years, thus the need for 4 lanes.  I travelled that section many times.  I am sure the earlier existence of I-10 in AL is the reason US-90 in AL is the way it is.

[Ace10]

^ That makes much more sense now. Thanks for the background information. I thought it was a bit interesting how US 90 curves toward I-10 right at the state line - I just hadn't made the connection that they were once directly connected.

[Alps]

^ That makes much more sense now. Thanks for the background information. I thought it was a bit interesting how US 90 curves toward I-10 right at the state line - I just hadn't made the connection that they were once directly connected.

Well, check out the old road, which is momentarily above I-10 there. It's not as much that 90 was built to curve up that way as that I-10 was built to meet US 90 at Moss Point, and 90 upgraded accordingly.

[Alex]

The original alignment of U.S. 90 took the route along Old Stage Road from Orange Grove to Independence Road east directly into Alabama.



The four-lane alignment shoots southwest from the state line, where US 90 originally traveled due west. This Alabama official map still shows the old alignment.



This Gousha map shows the final configuration.

From what I have researched, County Road 28 (Old Pascagoula Road) is part of the Old Spanish Trail, though I do not believe it was a part of US 90. Only the part from Three Notches (near Theodore on the map) to Mobile was a part of the original US highway. The four-lane tie of US 90 to I-10 is why Pascagoula remains the control city of I-10 west to this day.

[msunat97]

Does anyone have any info on how the US82 bypass is progressing around Centreville, AL?

[bdmoss88]

Does anyone have any info on how the US82 bypass is progressing around Centreville, AL?

Just went through there today. At least at the ends it looks like the base work is done. Not sure when the paving and connecting to current roadway is supposed to take place.

[roadman65]

Has the proposed freeway from I-10 in Florida to Dothan, AL ever gotten anywhere?  I did read that it was being debated heavily and that there is another chance it could be extended to Panama City as well.