US 45 in Alabama
| US 45 | |||
| Get started | mobile | ||
| End | Yellow Pine | ||
| Length | 57 mi | ||
| Length | 92 km | ||
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According to foodezine, US 45 is a US Highway in the US state of Alabama. The road forms a north-south route in the south of the state, between the city of Mobile, and the Mississippi border, 92 kilometers north.
Travel directions
US 45 near Mobile.
The road begins just west of downtown Mobile at the intersection with US 98, which runs from Hattiesburg to Pensacola. The road then heads northwest, through the northern neighborhoods of the 199,000-population city, crossing Interstate 65, the highway to Montgomery and Birmingham to the north. The road then leaves the urban area and runs through an area with many forests to the northwest. You regularly pass through small villages, and the road has 2×1 lanes. There are no larger towns on the route, and no important roads are crossed. After 90 kilometers you reach the Mississippi border, after which US 45 continues in Mississippi towards Meridian.
History
US 45 was one of the original US Highways of 1926, its southern terminus having always been the city of Mobile. The US 45 has few upgrades, right outside Mobile it is a single carriageway. There is no Interstate Highway built parallel to US 45.
Traffic intensities
10,000 to 12,000 vehicles drive daily in Mobile and 23,000 vehicles just north of I-65. This drops to 11,000 vehicles on the outskirts of the built-up area and steadily declines further north to 2,400 vehicles on the Mississippi border.
US 78 in Alabama
| US 78 | |
| Get started | Bexar |
| End | Muscadine |
| Length | 170 mi |
| Length | 274 km |
According to bittranslators, US 78 is US Highway in the US state of Alabama. US 78 forms an east-west route across the state, from the Mississippi border at Bexar via Birmingham to the Georgia border at Muscadine. West of Birmingham, US 78 largely coincides with Interstate 22. US 78 is 274 kilometers long in Alabama.
Travel directions
I-22 on the Alabama-Mississippi border.
The US 78 in Mississippi comes from Tupelo and Memphis, the road here is a freeway, the Interstate 22. The motorway runs in a southeasterly direction through wooded and slightly hilly areas. Almost the entire stretch between the Mississippi and Birmingham border coincides with I-22. US 78 calls at two small towns along the way, first Hamilton, where they cross US 43 and US 278, then Jasper. Shortly before Birmingham, US 78 splits off I-22 and enters Birmingham city via Forestdale.
The section between I-22 and Birmingham is a 2×2 divided highway that has become an urban arterial due to the many buildings on the route. It is the primary gateway to the suburbs of Graysville, Adamsville and Forestdale. The US 78 then leads through the street network of the center of Birmingham and makes several exits. In the center one crosses Interstate 65, US 11, US 31 and US 280. Through Birmingham’s eastern suburbs, US 78 parallels Interstate 20.
On the rest of the route in eastern Alabama, I-20 and US 78 parallel each other a short distance. This area is wooded and hilly. US 78 passes through small towns such as Leeds, Pell City and Anniston. East of Pell City one crosses the Coosa River, which is dammed here. US 78 bypasses the town of Anniston through the suburb of Oxford. To the east, US 78 runs somewhat further north of I-20, after which the border with the state of Georgia follows in a sparsely populated area, after which US 78 continues in Georgia to Atlanta.
History
US 78 was one of the original US Highways of 1926 and has always run between Memphis and Charleston. This was historically one of the major US Highways in the southeastern United States, connecting Memphis, Birmingham, Atlanta, Augusta, and Charleston. Later, the road was largely replaced by Interstate Highways.
US 78 has seen a number of route changes over the years. In western Alabama, US 78 was expanded as a freeway on a new route, which later became I-22. For a long time this freeway was only known as US 78. This replaced the route with the towns of Hamilton and Jasper, so that the current US 78 west of Birmingham has only limited similarities with the original route. In eastern Alabama, US 78 has been rerouted outside downtown Anniston. There was originally a north-south section between Anniston and Oxford, cut off by a direct east-west route south of Anniston.
As early as the 1950s, US 78 in the western suburbs of Birmingham was widened to 2×2 lanes. Also, a section between Leeds and Pell City was widened to 4 lanes, which later became an integral part of I-20. East of Birmingham, I-20 was built a short distance parallel to US 78, so that by 1970 this part was no longer important for through traffic. That’s also one reason that US 78 east of Birmingham has seen few upgrades, except for the diversion at Anniston in the 1950s.
Interstate 22
The US 78 freeway between Memphis and Birmingham was developed as Corridor X of the Appalachian Development Highway System. However, this did not happen directly as a freeway, initially the US 78 was widened to a 2×2 divided highway with at-grade intersections between Jasper and the suburbs of Birmingham in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The actual US 78 freeway was later constructed over a new route.
Construction on the US 78 freeway began in the second half of the 1980s on the stretch from the Mississippi state border to the south side of Hamilton. In the first half of the 1990s, construction was carried out from Hamilton to the southeast, and the Jasper diversion was added in the mid 1990s. Around 1998, the Carbon Hill diversion was also completed, which followed the Jasper diversion. In the period 1999-2001, the intermediate section was under construction and by 2004 a long stretch from the Mississippi border to Jasper was completed. The section between Jasper and Adamsville was subsequently constructed in the mid-2000s, bypassing the old 2×2 route over a new route, which was completed in 2006-2007. This completed almost the entire route between the Mississippi and Birmingham border. with the exception of the easternmost section which was built on a more northerly route to I-65 north of Birmingham. This section of I-22 was finally opened to traffic on June 20, 2016.
Since 2013, the US 78 freeway has also been renumbered I-22, leading to speculation that US 78 west of Birmingham could be scrapped because the entire route between Memphis and Birmingham coincides with I-22.
