Limestone County to widen Mooresville Road
A project to improve Mooresville Road near Madison to facilitate increased traffic to the Mazda Toyota plant and Amazon fulfillment center will cost at least $1.7 million and possibly up to $4 million, but Limestone County commissioners expect grants to fund most of the work.
The project would include widening and repaving the road and improving two intersections.
The Limestone County Commission has received a $1 million grant and anticipates being approved for another $500,000 grant to make the improvements.
The commission this week committed to a match of $200,000 in the form of labor and equipment required for the project.
“The widening of the road and the resurfacing will go from … Huntsville-Brownsferry and Mooresville (roads) all the way to (Interstate) 565 at Mooresville,” District 3 commissioner Jason Black said.
The widening will not add more lanes, but simply widen the current lanes, according to Black.
“It’s too narrow of a road. The road was not built for the transportation that’s on it now,” he said. “It’s a farm-to-market road more than anything.”
Turning lanes and traffic lights need to be installed at the intersection of Old Highway 20 and Mooresville Road to help traffic get to and from the Mazda Toyota plant and Amazon center, Black said.
According to commission Chairman Collin Daly, traffic studies will be done to determine if it would be better for traffic to have a roundabout or traffic light at the intersection of Mooresville Road and Huntsville-Brownsferry Road.
“We’re just trying to get it to where we can move traffic a lot better in those intersections,” Daly said. “When you have a growth like we’ve had in that area, naturally you’ve got to move traffic.”
Black said the improvements will make the road safer and faster.
“That stretch of Mooresville would be great if we had half of the traffic on it and half of it on Greenbrier (Parkway),” Black said. “Right now, we’ve got everybody on a two-lane road and Greenbrier Parkway’s not completed so they’re not using it.”
The $1 million grant was awarded by the Appalachian Regional Commission. The county hopes it also obtains a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant.
“The $500,000 that we applied for … the application is ready to go in and we should know within the next few days if we’re awarded it or not,” Daly said.
Daly said the commission is seeking additional funding for other parts of the project as well.
According to Black, “This will be a project that will be probably $3.5 million to $4 million, so we’ll have to find money somewhere else. … We can do a lot of it with what we’ve got, but we won’t be able to do all of it.”
No start date on the project has been set, Black said, but he expects it to be completed this year. He said paving cannot be done when temperatures are too cool because it will not cure.
