I've looked at many I-22 corridor websites showing convincing support from many manufacturing companies wanting to establish themselves in Northwest Alabama near or at I-22, but how does Toyota have to do with it?
Toyota has a somewhat recently opened assembly plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi, along the US 78/ Future I-22 corridor. As
this article and TV video report indicate, Toyota partially made the decision to locate the plant in Blue Springs in reliance on a promise that MS 9 would receive a four-lane upgrade between US 78 (near the Blue Springs plant) and MS 6. MDOT completed that project in a remarkably short period of time.
When I made the comment about Toyota, I was referring to the Blue Springs plant in Mississippi and my belief that Toyota would much prefer immediate I-22 signage, only recently allowed by MAP-21, over waiting for a physical tie-in to the current interstate system and continuation of US 78 signage for another two years.
edit - I'm not sure how long the above link will be "live", so I'm quoting part of the article to show the importance of highway projects in the minds of Mississippi officials in being able to attract large manufacturers like Toyota:
A promise is a promise.
State and local officials say they promised Toyota a new highway and they gave it to them ....
It was just over one year ago that officials were in Belden breaking ground on this project. Now, it's complete, under budget and well ahead of schedule ....
The design-build concept is not often used in Mississippi.
There needs to be a reason for it.
"Certainly, design-build has it's place and every situation is a little different. Its depends on the environmental situation for which you're trying to build a project. It depends on your time frame. If you're trying to accommodate a manufacturer like in this case," Northern District Highway Commissioner Mike Tagert said.
"We made a promise to Toyota that if they would believe in us and go ahead and move forward with the plan that we would make the commitment for Highway 9 and so people from all over the state helped us keep this promise. That means a lot the next time we go out recruiting," U.S. Senator Roger Wicker said.
"We told Toyota if they would come, we promised them we would upgrade this road and we're fulfilling that promise today," Governor Bryant said ....
With the above in mind, I think MDOT would move rapidly if Toyota made an express request for immediate I-22 signage.