Seen in the Birmingham Times:
State officials plan to open 26 miles of Corridor X next month, giving motorists a straight shot from Forestdale to Memphis.
A new 20-mile section of highway will open Nov. 14 from Industrial Parkway in Jasper to U.S. 78 in Graysville. At the same time, transportation officials will officially open a six-mile stretch from Graysville to Cherry Avenue in Forestdale that has been open to local traffic only.[...]
The opening will leave about five miles of the corridor leading to Interstate 65 in Birmingham to be finished, plus construction of the interchange at I-65, before the corridor is completed.
With my first post-college job having been in Lower Alabama and my family living in Memphis, I was rather familiar with the hodge-podge of 2-lane and freeway alignments of US 78 between Birmingham and Memphis. (For example, pictures of my most recent trek up US 78 can be found in my gallery, starting here.)
While I’m a fan of back roads, there is quite a bit of truck traffic on that corridor, so seeing the route converted to freeway doesn’t upset me. It’s just amazing, however, when you think about how long the upgrade has taken (over 20 years).
Interstate-standard sections of Corridor X are supposed to be resigned as I-22 once a connection is made to the interstate system, presumably first at the I-65 interchange to be built north of downtown Birmingham.
