HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – Where, exactly, is this "Downtown Gateway" road going to be built?
Several AL.com readers posed that question to me after I reported last week that the Huntsville City Council had hired Wiregrass Construction to build a new four-lane divided boulevard off Governors Drive.
The aerial image below, provided by Marty Sellers of sellersphoto.com, gives a bird's-eye view of where the new road will be built beginning in a few weeks. Click "View full size" for the best picture.
This aerial map shows the route of the Huntsville's planned Downtown Gateway road. The city is paying Wiregrass Construction just over $2 million to build the four-lane divided boulevard from Governors Drive to Lowe Avenue near Big Spring International Park. (Courtesy Marty Sellers | sellersphoto.com)
The Downtown Gateway will start directly across from Harvard Road on the Huntsville Hospital side of Governors Drive and continue north toward the center city. As you can see, two buildings are going to be torn down in the block between Governors Drive and St. Clair Avenue.
The city paid $1.6 million earlier this year to acquire those commercial properties from Heritage Ventures.
The new road will cross St. Clair Avenue and then duck between Artisan apartments at Twickenham Square and Big Springs Specialty Care, a nursing home. At Pelham Avenue, drivers will be able to turn toward the new downtown Publix or go the other direction toward the Monroe Street traffic circle.
The road will bend slightly northeast and cross Fagan Creek – the construction contract includes a new bridge -- before meeting up with Lowe Avenue near Big Spring International Park.
Huntsville officials say the $2 million-plus road project has multiple benefits.
Lined with decorative street lights, wide sidewalks, benches, heavy landscaping and possibly public art, it will give drivers a prettier and more direct route into downtown from Governors Drive.
By siphoning traffic away from Gallatin, Madison and Franklin streets, it could make those roads through the Huntsville Hospital campus more pedestrian-friendly.
Officials are also counting on the Downtown Gateway to help spur redevelopment of the vacant Holiday Inn site. Four companies have submitted proposals to turn the prime city-owned land across from the Von Braun Center into a mixed-use development with restaurants, retail and possibly a hotel.