The Southern Bypass

Also known as the Patriot Parkway has been granted funding for a feasibility study for creating a toll road across Redstone Arsenal by the state. From today's Huntsville Times:

MONTGOMERY - A contract for a feasibility study on building the Southern Bypass in Huntsville as a toll road was approved Thursday without comment by the joint legislative contract review committee.

A $150,000 contract between the Alabama Department of Transportation and Columbia, S.C.-based Wilbur Smith Associates will take effect once it's signed by Gov. Bob Riley.

I'm curious to see a justification for this road which seems to me to be an upside down project which I cannot see taking traffic off of the major bottleneck which is Memorial Parkway. I just can't see the need for a shortcut from I-565 to Hobbs Island Road. I would think that a loop around Huntsville would be much more efficient!

Mayor Loretta Spencer endorsed the concept of a toll road years ago when serving as chairman of the City Planning Commission. She reiterated that support Thursday in a meeting with Times editors and reporters. Noting the area's growing traffic (a Redstone general recently told her of 165 more families moving soon under the BRAC transfers) and the years it would take to build if dependent totally on highway allocations, Spencer agreed a toll road could speed construction.

"We have to be realistic. We do have a responsibility to move traffic," she said.

I will reiterate my stance that the residents of Huntsville, Madison and Athens will never use a toll road enough to justify the cost of construction regardless of the toll fee!