| I-65 | |||
| Get started | mobile | ||
| End | Ardmore | ||
| Length | 367 mi | ||
| Length | 591 km | ||
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Interstate 65 or I -65 is an Interstate Highway in the US state of Alabama. The highway is the state’s main north-south route, serving major cities in the state. The highway begins on the Gulf of Mexico near the city of Mobile. From here, the highway runs north through Montgomery and Birmingham to Ardmore, on the border with Tennessee. The track in Alabama is 591 kilometers long.
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Travel directions
Southern Alabama
The starting point of I-65 in Mobile.
South of the city of Mobile, the highway begins at the interchange with Interstate 10. The highway runs along the west side of Mobile, a city of 199,000 inhabitants and 400,000 in the metropolitan area. The highway has 2×3 lanes here. At the suburb of Prichard, Interstate 165. joinsin, which runs to and from the center of Mobile. After this you leave the urban area, and you pass a few satellite cities. At Satsuma, the US 43 crosses, which forms an important north-south connection between Mobile and Tuscaloosa. The River Mobile is crossed via a large double arch bridge. Through a swamp that forms the Mobile Bay delta, the river-mediated highway leads to the next river crossing, with the Alabama River. The entire crossing of the delta is about 15 kilometers. After this one enters dense forests.
The highway runs to the northeast, occasionally intersecting a main road, and the lanes are sometimes quite far apart. You will not be able to pass large cities for the time being. A little further on, the woods give way to open fields, but the woods regularly dominate. At Evergreen, US 84 crosses from Grove Hill to Dothan in the southeast. Then you drive through the characteristic dense forests of southern Alabama again. After about twenty kilometers the US 31 runs parallel to the highway for some distance. The landscape is quite monotonous, because there are no real differences in height, and now and then you pass a town hidden in the woods. Just before Montgomery, the landscape becomes more open.
At the south end of Montgomery, US 80 exits, a main road to Selma and Demopolis in the western part of the state. Then you cross the SR-8, a ring road of Montgomery, which is not a highway. Montgomery is the capital of Alabama and has a population of 202,000. On the southwest side of downtown, Interstate 85 begins, running northeast to Auburn and Atlanta, and beyond, as far as Richmondin Virginia. The highway has 2×3 lanes here. You then cross the Alabama River again, which here consists largely of successive dams. It is striking that the center here immediately turns into a rural area, this part has no suburbs or suburbs. After Montgomery, the highway continues through forest areas, and occasionally crosses US 31, which runs parallel to the highway.
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Northern Alabama
I-65 at Birmingham.
The forest area continues north of Montgomery, and there are no major towns as far as Birmingham. Here too, the landscape is quite monotonous, most of the 350 kilometers covered have a view of forests. Alabaster enters the urban area of Birmingham, with 229,000 inhabitants and 1.1 million in the metropolitan area, Alabama’s largest city. After the exit to Meadowbrook, the road widens to 2×3 lanes. A large 4-level stack interchange crosses Interstate 459, Birmingham’s southern and eastern bypass. From here you can quickly go to Jackson and New Orleans, and to Chattanooga and Atlanta. This part of the agglomeration consists of rich suburbs, which are sparsely populated. As one gets closer to Birmingham itself, the residential areas become denser, with industrial estates lining the highway. Just south of the center the road widens a bit, to 2×4 lanes. One passes west of the center along, which mainly consists of industrial estates. Via a strangely configured interchange one crosses Interstate 20, which here is double-numbered with Interstate 59. This is the main hub in the state, and one can travel to all cardinal directions. To the west you can go to Jackson, Dallas and New Orleans, to the east to Atlanta, Gadsden and Chattanooga.
North of this junction the road narrows again to 2×3 lanes. In the future, Interstate 22 will merge on the north side of Alabam, which runs to Memphis. This is followed by a few rich suburbs, again situated in the woods. One passes not far from the large Lewis Smith Lake, a reservoir. A little further north, the forests become less dense, with the occasional pasture, but continue to prevail. At Cullman you cross the US 278, which runs from Gadsden to Hamilton. The US 31 also runs parallel to the highway here. You pass Decatur, a regional city with 56,000 inhabitants. Here one crosses the Tennessee River, which is about a kilometer wide, and one crosses Interstate 565, which leads to Huntsville, northern Alabama’s largest city, located about 20 miles away. A little further on, near Athens, you cross the US 72, which runs between Huntsville and Florence, and is therefore an important east-west axis in this part of the state. Interstate 65 continues in Tennessee at Ardmore.
History
I-65 at Cullman.
On December 10, 1959, the first section of I-65 opened in Alabama, an eight-mile section around Warrior, north of Birmingham. This was also the first Interstate Highway in the state. On March 23, 1961, a 37-kilometer section opened from Clanton to Calera, south of Birmingham. On April 1, 1961, a 26-kilometer section from Warrior to Cullman followed. On January 4, 1963, the first section opened in Mobile over 12 kilometers.
The remainder of the route was mainly open between the mid-1960s and late 1970s, with the exception of a 12-mile section between Alabaster and Hoover in suburban Birmingham which opened on May 20, 1981, and the elevated section across the Mobile on October 2, 1981. River north of Mobile ( General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge ). The last section of I-65 in Alabama opened on December 19, 1985 for 14 miles between Lewisburg and Warrior, north of Birmingham.
Widening
Portions of I-65 have been widened since opening.
Mobile
The Mobile ring road was already widened before 1997 to 2×3 and partly 2×4 lanes. When exactly is unknown. The wide section runs from I-10 to Saraland north of Mobile. In 2003, the northern section between Chickasaw and Saraland was widened to 2×3 lanes.
Montgomery
In the Montgomery region, a section north of the city was the first to be widened to 2×3 lanes. Between approximately 2000 and 2003, the highway between the Montgomery and Prattville ring road was widened to 2×3 lanes. Circa 2010-2011, I-65 was widened to 2×3 lanes by Montgomery itself, between US 80 south of the city and the Loop north of the city. The bridge over the Alabama River has also been replaced.
Birmingham
In 2010, the widening between Pelham and Indian Springs Village in the southern suburbs of Birmingham was completed. The highway has been widened to 2×3 lanes here. The part north of it, up to downtown Birmingham, has already been widened in or before the 1990s. In about 2010, the I-65 in the north of Birmingham was also widened, with quite a few flyovers being completely replaced. This section has been widened from 2×3 to 2×4 lanes plus weave lanes between the interchange with I-20/59 and Daniel Payne Drive. Then, between 2010 and 2016, I-65 was further widened to Fultondale in connection with the construction of the interchange with I-22. Between 2018 and 2019, 6 kilometers of I-65 between Alabaster and Pelham was widened to 2×3 lanes, the extra lanes opened on October 1, 2019.
Birmingham – Huntsville
The section between Fultondale and Gardendale was widened to 2×3 lanes before 1997. Around 2003, a fairly long stretch north of Birmingham was widened from Gardendale to the Cullman County border, about 25 miles north of Birmingham.
Traffic intensities
80,000 vehicles drive daily at the interchange with I-10 in Mobile, peaking at 98,000 vehicles on the west side of Mobile. This drops to 71,000 vehicles north of I-165 and 22,000 vehicles outside Mobile, on the bridges over the Alabama River. After that, mostly 18,000 to 25,000 vehicles drive to the Montgomery region, closer to Montgomery increasing from 35,000 to 42,000 vehicles per day. This peaks at a maximum of 82,000 vehicles per day near downtown Montgomery.
North of Montgomery, 36,000 to 41,000 vehicles head for Birmingham, rising to 60,000 to 88,000 vehicles in the southern suburbs and 124,000 vehicles for the interchange with I-459. After that, 139,000 vehicles will drive around Birmingham city center, the busiest point on I-65.
North of Birmingham, this drops to 87,000 vehicles after the I-22 interchange and 59,000 vehicles in the northern suburbs. In addition, 35,000 to 40,000 vehicles drive up to the interchange with I-565 toward Huntsville. After that, the intensities drop from 35,000 to 30,000 vehicles on the Tennessee border.
Lane Configuration
| From | Unpleasant | Lanes |
| exit 0 | Exit 1 | 2×4 |
| Exit 1 | exit 8 | 2×3 |
| exit 8 | Exit 9 (I-165) | 2×4 |
| Exit 9 | exit 13 | 2×3 |
| exit 13 | Exit 167 | 2×2 |
| Exit 167 | Exit 181 | 2×3 |
| Exit 181 | Exit 238 | 2×2 |
| Exit 238 | Exit 250 | 2×3 |
| Exit 250 | Exit 252 | 2×4 |
| Exit 252 | Exit 259 | 2×3 |
| Exit 259 | Exit 261 | 2×4 |
| Exit 261 | Exit 291 | 2×3 |
| Exit 291 | Exit 365 | 2×2 |
