[Rail Claimore]

Originally Posted by Alabadrock

The head of the Decatur MPO, Dewayne Hellums, has said that the organization is predicting a 200% increase, over 25 years, in traffic at the interchange with I-65/I-565/ALT US 72/AL 20.

A 2005 traffic count put the daily flow at 50,000 cars per day. The MPO expects that to increase to 140,000 by 2035.

It sounds like a ridiculous count, but when you consider that the predominant employment core for Decatur is quickly shifting to Huntsville, it's not hard to believe. With the job growth in jobs in Huntsville, the city is expecting to see a larger number of people commuting from the city to Madison County.

Currently, there are 4 lanes in either direction between Decatur and Huntsville, both of them funnel into, and bottle neck at, the I-65/I-565 interchange in northeastern Decatur. Obviously, something's going to have to change.

As much as I hate to say it, I'm praying that the Decatur metro and Huntsville metro will merge together by the 2010 census, so that there can be a singular MPO for the core of the Tennessee Valley.

25 years? More like 10 with the way things are going right now. 565 is a clusterf*ck from the airport all the way to I-65 every rush hour right NOW. If you ask me, 565 ought to be 8 lanes for its entire length.