US 431 in Alabama

 

US 431
Get started dothan
End Fisk
Length 342 mi
Length 550 km
Route
Dothan

Eufaula

Phenix City

Opelika

Roanoke

anniston

Gadsden

Guntersville

Huntsville

Tennessee

According to watchtutorials, US 431 is a US Highway in the US state of Alabama. The road forms a north-south route through the east of the state, passing through several larger towns, from Dothan through Phenix City to Anniston and Gadsden, then on to Huntsville and the Tennessee border. Large parts of the route have been expanded with 2×2 lanes. The road is 550 kilometers long.

Travel directions

US 431 south of Phenix City.

Southern Alabama

US 431 begins on the south side of the Dothan city ring road, where US 231 also connects. The US 431 then follows the eastern ring and has a partial double numbering with the US 84. After Dothan, a 150-kilometer rural track to Phenix City begins. This section is designed as a 2×2 divided highway. The landscape around Dothan is still quite open but becomes denser towards the north. Between Dothan and Phenix City there is only one other place on the route, the town of Eufaula where the US 82 crosses. This portion of US 431 runs parallel to the Chattahoochee River, which crosses the Georgia borderforms. One eventually reaches Phenix City, a small town that sits opposite the larger city of Columbus in Georgia. Phenix City has a west bypass that has 2×2 lanes and service roads. In Phenix City you cross the US 80 and start double numbering with US 280.

Central Alabama

US 431 at Anniston.

Then the US 431 has a 35 kilometer long double numbering with the US 280 as far as Opelika, in a northwesterly direction. This is also a 2×2 divided highway. Just before Opelika there is a connection to Interstate 85. From Opelika there is a 140 kilometer stretch to Anniston, this section is more secondary in character and is almost everywhere a single carriageway. The US 431 also runs parallel to the border with Georgia and only passes through some small villages. The landscape here is also predominantly wooded. Closer to Anniston the landscape becomes more hilly. East of Anniston there is a connection to Interstate 20, after which US 431 has a short double number with US 78 until Oxford, a suburb of Anniston.

US 431 then forms a route right through the town of Anniston, but there is also an eastern bypass. The passage through Anniston has 2×3 lanes. Then US 431 continues 40 kilometers north to the city of Gadsden, which is also a 2×2 divided highway. The road here leads through an area of ​​ridges and valleys. In Gadsden, US 431 is double numbered with US 278 and crosses the Coosa River. In Gadsden one also crosses the US 411. Between Gadsden and Atalla, US 431 along with US 278 form a 2×2 lane urban arterial. Here is also a connection to Interstate 59.

Northern Alabama

Just outside Atalla, US 278 and US 431 split, US 431 heads north as a 2×2 divided highway through the hilly landscape. Around Boaz and Albertville, US 431 is a nearly 15-mile retail corridor for the region, with endless shops, businesses and strip malls. The road then cuts through Guntersville and crosses Guntersville Lake, a reservoir on the Tennessee River. US 431 then heads northwest through hilly terrain to the larger town of Huntsville.

Reaching Huntsville to the southeast, US 431 rejoins US 231 south of downtown. From this point on, US 231 and US 431 are double-numbered for the rest of the route in Alabama. The Huntsville bypass has been developed as a freeway. North of Huntsville, US 231/431 is a 2×2 divided highway to the Tennessee border. US 431 in Tennessee then continues to Fayetteville and Nashville.

History

According to Citypopulationreview, US 431 is a relatively late addition to the US Highways network, only being introduced in 1954 and having run between Dothan, Alabama and Owensboro, Kentucky ever since. US 431 replaced major State Route 1, which also ran from Dothan to the Tennessee border, but has a different route in central Alabama than US 431, between Opelika and Anniston, State Route 1 follows a more westerly route than US 431.

Large parts of US 431 have been widened over the years to a 2×2 divided highway, partly with reroutes. Only the middle part between Opelika and Anniston is not a 2×2 divided highway. In Huntsville, a small section has even been constructed as a freeway.

Dothan – Phenix City

A complete ring road has been constructed in Dothan. This ring road, also known as the Ross Clark Circle, was built in the late 1950s. This was given the number State Route 210, but is double-numbered on all segments with other US Highways, the US 84, US 231 and US 431. The ring road was originally not signposted with the number 210, only later this number appeared on the signage. The Dothan ring road is directly constructed as a 2×2 divided highway, with a maximum speed of 50 mph. The ring road is now highly developed with retail and industry, giving it an urban character.

As early as the 1960s, the passage through Eufaula was widened to 4 lanes. In the early 1970s, the first 12 kilometers from Dothan to Headland were widened to 2×2 lanes. Also at that time the 4-lane section on both sides of Eufaula was extended beyond this location. However, it wasn’t until the 1980s that longer stretches between Dothan and Phenix City were widened to 2×2 lanes, initially primarily from Dothan to the north, with the doubling between Dothan and Eufaula being completed in the early 1990s.

In the mid-1990s, the full doubling between Eufaula and Phenix City began, with parts of US 431 being diverted over a new route. Around 2002 the road was diverted at Seale and around 2005 at Pittsview. It took until 2011 for the entire stretch from Eufaula to Phenix City to have 2×2 lanes.

Phenix City – Opelika

The section between Phenix City and Opelika is also part of US 280, and is therefore a link that also connects Birmingham to Columbus, but is also the best developed route between Montgomery and Columbus. These are three different traffic flows that are handled between Phenix City and Opelika. In the 1980s a longer section between Phenix City and Opelika was widened to 2×2 lanes, at the end of the 1990s this entire section had 2×2 lanes.

Anniston – Huntsville

The first bridge over the Tennessee River at Guntersville opened to traffic in 1930, this was a truss bridge that was replaced by two new bridges in 1994.

The first upgrades to US 431 took place between Gadsden and Guntersville in the 1950s, when this section was already being rerouted over a new 2×2 lane. In the decades that followed, this corridor was extremely developed with retail, it is in fact a 25 kilometer long shopping street through which traffic is allowed to drive at 90 km/h. In the early to mid-1960s, the Anniston to Gadsden section was also widened to 2×2 lanes, completed by 1970. In the early 1970s, the first 10 miles from Huntsville were widened to 2×2 lanes. However, it wasn’t until the late 1990s that the entire US 431 between Guntersville and Huntsville had 2×2 lanes.

Huntsville

The passage through the larger town of Huntsville is laid out as the Memorial Parkway. This road was widened to 2×2 lanes in the early to mid-1950s, the Memorial Parkway officially opened on December 1, 1955. From the 1960s, the population of Huntsville began to grow strongly and the Memorial Parkway was made grade separated in many phases by overpasses. construct intersections. The first new connection opened to traffic in 1969. The construction of viaducts over intersections was carried out over a period of decades, several new connections were opened in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. In 1992 the major interchange with Interstate 565 opened. After 2000, several new flyovers were built over intersections in the suburbs of Huntsville, more or less following the growth of the city. After the 1980s, Huntsville was the only Alabama city to experience significant population growth, with Madison County doubling in population between 1980 and 2020.

Traffic intensities

20,000 vehicles drive daily in Dothan, dropping to 10,000 vehicles to Eufaula and 7,000 to 10,000 vehicles between Eufaula and Phenix City. The part from Phenix City to Opelika is double-numbered with the US 280 and is somewhat busier with 15,000 to 20,000 vehicles. The section from Opelika to Anniston has 3,000 to 4,000 vehicles, which is busier in some places. Up to 40,000 vehicles pass through Anniston, and 20,000 vehicles run between Anniston and Gadsden. Up to 38,000 vehicles drive through Gadsden on the bridge over the Coosa River. From Gadsden to Huntsville there are 15,000 to 20,000 vehicles, with 33,000 vehicles in Boaz and 30,000 vehicles in Guntersville. In Huntsville, up to 113,000 vehicles and 20,000 vehicles drive between Huntsville and the Tennessee border.

US 431 in Alabama