Huntsville/Madison Development News (Birmingham, Montgomery: farmer, distances, farmer)

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by MisterEd51

Since Memorial Parkway so overloaded I wonder if there is any chance the Patriot Parkway will ever be resurrected. Another major north/south road might help. The biggest obstacle is Redstone Arsenal which greatly limits where a new north/south road could be built.

New Patriot Parkway route follows Jordan Lane, Patton Road
https://www.al.com/breaking/2009/12/...oute_foll.html

There are more recent articles that would have the roadway running basically along the same route mentioned. They sound more like "planned" than speculative, but I've not seen a timeline on building it. If it was over $500M in 2009, it would have to be double that now.

[mcalumni01]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

If the article is correct, they're similar:

"According to the Alabama Department of Transportation, Memorial Parkway just south of the I-565 interchange has about 130,000 vehicles per day while just north of I-565 on Memorial Parkway has about 77,000 vehicles.

ALDOT did not have a recent traffic count on I-565 through the interchange but just to west of the interchange, a 2019 count had an average daily count of more than 96,000 vehicles. In 2018, city engineer Kathy Martin said about 110,000 vehicles per day moved through the interchange on I-565.

Battle compared the Huntsville interchange to the recently reconfigured interchange in Birmingham of I-59 and I-65 at the crossroads of Alabama’s two prominent interstates known as “Malfunction Junction.” According to a 2019 ALDOT traffic study, about 120,000 vehicles went through that interchange every day."

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...PpnijsHsfg67MS

I-65/I-20/59. Page 20, 2nd paragraph...

What was originally designed to accommodate 80,000 vehicles per day, now carries 160,000. Then add another 130,000 vehicles per day on I-65, coupled with a high percentage of truck traffic has resulted in an inadequate volume to capacity to ratio.

[Surge0001]

Originally Posted by mcalumni01

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...PpnijsHsfg67MS

I-65/I-20/59. Page 20, 2nd paragraph...

What was originally designed to accommodate 80,000 vehicles per day, now carries 160,000. Then add another 130,000 vehicles per day on I-65, coupled with a high percentage of truck traffic has resulted in an inadequate volume to capacity to ratio.

Lol, alright since we are comparing sizes how about an interstate made to accommodate 40k a day that handles 80k a day and as much as 110k-120k on the holidays.

But in all seriousness, I hope Huntsville isn’t relying on ALDOT to help because they are absolutely useless, most everything that has happened in the past generation in the Mobile County has been done by the Feds and Pay Go, and County

[OldBankhead]

Originally Posted by mcalumni01

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...PpnijsHsfg67MS

I-65/I-20/59. Page 20, 2nd paragraph...

What was originally designed to accommodate 80,000 vehicles per day, now carries 160,000. Then add another 130,000 vehicles per day on I-65, coupled with a high percentage of truck traffic has resulted in an inadequate volume to capacity to ratio.

So right there it is clear that MJ handles 290k a day, but even still common sense should tell the guy that there's no way mem'l pkway/565 is anywhere close to seeing the same amount of traffic, yet... there it is, he conveiently ignores one whole side of it to make the numbers look good for his town.

Sounds familiar.

[Surge0001]

Originally Posted by OldBankhead

So right there it is clear that MJ handles 290k a day, but even still common sense should tell the guy that there's no way mem'l pkway/565 is anywhere close to seeing the same amount of traffic, yet... there it is, he conveiently ignores one whole side of it to make the numbers look good for his town.

Sounds familiar.

Not sure where you getting the number but it looking at ALDOT TDM 120k per day go through Malfunction from 20/59 and another 120k per day go through I-65 making only 240k While Memorial Parkway and I-565 has 130k and 100k respectively which make 230k which makes these two interchange pretty much the same in terms of traffic.... sounds familiar

[OldBankhead]

From mcalumni's post.
130 + 160 = 290.

Simple math.

But from talking to you that's not what matters. It's more important to talk about how many minivans full of beachgoers block the fast lane in the summer... or some other lame contrived situation.

[MardiGras251]

Originally Posted by OldBankhead

From mcalumni's post.
130 + 160 = 290.

Simple math.

But from talking to you that's not what matters. It's more important to talk about how many minivans full of beachgoers block the fast lane in the summer... or some other lame contrived situation.

Ig I’ll stir a little more. They way you guys speak, it seems as if the Bay Area has the best infrastructure of the bama metros. One thing I do notice that Birmingham and Mobile have that Huntsville doesn’t is a relief highway. Ie highway 90 and i10 run adjacent in mobile. 31 and i65, and highway 11 and i59/20 in bham . Is martin road in redstone arsenal? Maybe a double deck interstate for 565?

[mcalumni01]

Originally Posted by Surge0001

Not sure where you getting the number but it looking at ALDOT TDM 120k per day go through Malfunction from 20/59 and another 120k per day go through I-65 making only 240k While Memorial Parkway and I-565 has 130k and 100k respectively which make 230k which makes these two interchange pretty much the same in terms of traffic.... sounds familiar

Let's just take away the whole "one up" thing here. 20/59 has 10 lanes through downtown. I-65 has 8 lanes through downtown. That's 18 lanes coverging into downtown. Let's just be realisitic here. This ain't a competition thing or nothing like that.

[dijkstra]

Originally Posted by MardiGras251

Ig I’ll stir a little more. They way you guys speak, it seems as if the Bay Area has the best infrastructure of the bama metros. One thing I do notice that Birmingham and Mobile have that Huntsville doesn’t is a relief highway. Ie highway 90 and i10 run adjacent in mobile. 31 and i65, and highway 11 and i59/20 in bham . Is martin road in redstone arsenal? Maybe a double deck interstate for 565?

I drive in and all around Huntsville every day. We have friends that live in Mobile and go down fairly often. I loathe driving around Mobile. Their traffic is horrible. Anyone that does not believe me, go down there one weekend and anytime between 9am and 5pm on Saturday get on I65, get off on Airport Blvd and go west and then turn North on Schillinger. At that point you will see what I mean and that would be on a Saturday.....you don't even want to try to get around Mobile during rush hour during the week.

Mobile is far behind on their infrastructure needs. Their Airport Blvd should have had overpasses years ago. Birmingham is leaps and bounds ahead of them. Huntsville hasn't been bad until recently but they are now starting to get behind the curve. If Huntsville doesn't address the I65 to Memorial Parkway interchange and get the rest of the Memorial Parkway overpasses build soon, they are going to have a traffic nightmare.

[Surge0001]

Originally Posted by dijkstra

I drive in and all around Huntsville every day. We have friends that live in Mobile and go down fairly often. I loathe driving around Mobile. Their traffic is horrible. Anyone that does not believe me, go down there one weekend and anytime between 9am and 5pm on Saturday get on I65, get off on Airport Blvd and go west and then turn North on Schillinger. At that point you will see what I mean and that would be on a Saturday.....you don't even want to try to get around Mobile during rush hour during the week.

Mobile is far behind on their infrastructure needs. Their Airport Blvd should have had overpasses years ago. Birmingham is leaps and bounds ahead of them. Huntsville hasn't been bad until recently but they are now starting to get behind the curve. If Huntsville doesn't address the I65 to Memorial Parkway interchange and get the rest of the Memorial Parkway overpasses build soon, they are going to have a traffic nightmare.

The only Infrastructure needs that Mobile truly needs are interstate widening, Bayway Replacement, better highway connections to our neighbors (HW 90, 45, and 43), (basically everything that falls under ALDOT, which is why none of it has gotten done (also the reason why "Birmingham is leap and bounds ahead of them" because they get that love) Our actually road system is not the problem, Along the I-65 there are 6 arterial roads to choose from with 13 (soon, 14-15) total one direction lanes within a stretch of less than 4 miles . Airport has no room for an overpass. Also given the high density of residence around Airport an overpass would just create the same problem as the two junction that we've been discussing creating thru traffic of like 200k in the hypothetical interchange