I-422 northern beltline....

[steveklein]

Originally Posted by brickpatio2018

The Memphis Beltline through North Mississippi has been a huge benefit to the region. It cuts through booming DeSoto County, Mississippi in exactly the spot where top schools are located and new homes are being built.

It also provides a connection for I-22 from Birmingham to the interstate system at I-55 and into downtown Memphis. And it connects the fast-growing Mississippi suburbs to Germantown/Collierville and on around to I-40N heading towards Nashville. It was a badly needed route in order to avoid the congested interstate running directly through Memphis.

I think this particular highway was part of a new national interstate connecting the upper Midwest down to Texas, for the benefit of international trade, etc. That's probably why it got funded so quickly. It's supposed to extend down into the Mississippi Delta, cross over into Arkansas, and veer down towards Houston I believe.

It also knocks a good amount of time off driving to the casinos in Tunica (even if that area is dying...)

[cooldiver]

Originally Posted by brickpatio2018

The Memphis Beltline through North Mississippi has been a huge benefit to the region. It cuts through booming DeSoto County, Mississippi in exactly the spot where top schools are located and new homes are being built.

That area of Mississippi is reasonably flat, so that Memphis Beltline provided access to a lot of land that can be readily developed.


One of Birmingham's charms is its beautiful mountains and hillsides, but that means more work and money to blast, grade, and build.

[MinivanDriver]

Originally Posted by cooldiver

That area of Mississippi is reasonably flat, so that Memphis Beltline provided access to a lot of land that can be readily developed.


One of Birmingham's charms is its beautiful mountains and hillsides, but that means more work and money to blast, grade, and build.

Yep. That's why I-22 took so long to complete. If you look at the terrain between I-65 and Cordova, it's just one steep gully after another.

[mcalumni01]

I-65 to be widened from Alabaster to Calera: Ivey announces $500 million Birmingham area interstate projects

https://www.al.com/news/2023/08/gov-...-projects.html

Between this and the $489M for the northeast phase of the Northern Beltline, almost a billion dollars for the area interstates.

Currently I-65 is getting a new maintenance project from University Blvd to Hwy 31.

I-20 at the split is getting rebuilt in the near future as well.