The growth of North Alabama, specifically Huntsville, is a topic of daily discussion among residents, city, county, and state leadership, and even the nation at large.

From the long-awaited announcement of Space Command’s move to Redstone Arsenal, to increasing commercial developments, and Eli Lilly’s new $6 billion manufacturing facility, Madison County is growing at an unprecedented rate.

This year, Huntsville has annexed over 2,000 acres. Soon, the city will expand its geographic footprint by 724 acres when the city council votes to add them.

At the Huntsville City Council meeting on Thursday, December 4, the council introduced an ordinance to annex an additional 724 acres. The vote to officially include this land in the city’s official acreage will take place at the council’s next meeting on Thursday, December 18th.

The locations of the new land annexations are:

* 686.46 acres on the north of Little Cove Rd and east and west of Hwy 72 E

* 1.41 acres on the south of Sutton Rd. and west of Woodside Drive

* 36.54 acres of land lying on the south side of Martin Rd. and east of Electronics Blvd.

During the meeting, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle acknowledged the city’s need and focus on improving infrastructure. Battle said he recently met with the Alabama Legislature and confirmed that road projects within Huntsville will be a priority in the upcoming state legislative session.

“Our main focus is going to be on roads. We are just finishing up Restore Our Roads One, and right behind it is Restore Our Roads Two, which has a number of projects. We know it’s going to take 10 to 12 years to get those projects built, but those are essential projects to our population growth,” Battle said.

Battle continued, “That’s what we have put across to the legislature, to the governor’s staff, and also to some of the Alabama Department of Transportation officials. We’ve got some good responses from them and are able to work at least on one of our six road projects. I think we’re making progress there.”

During the city council meeting, the City also voted to enter a funding agreement with the Huntsville-Madison County Railroad Authority (HMCRA) to assist in the replacement of the Aldridge Creek railroad bridge. Additional updates to the railroad will also be included in this arrangement with the city.

The City of Huntsville is contributing $800,000 to the project’s total cost of $6,320,200. The remaining costs will be paid by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), a 2022 Federal Railroad Administration Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement (CRISI) grant, and the HMCRA.

In similar news, Huntsville District 5 Councilmember John Meredith said he will be reaching out to the Madison City Council to collaborate on the potential use of AI-based alerts for blocked railroad crossings.

“Certainly, within my district, there are many railroad crossings that are blocked for long periods of time, and the queue really gets long because you are in places where you can’t turn around and there’s no notice,” Meredith said.

The proposed solution would allow an AI-based service to send residents text messages when a particular road is blocked by a train.

“I know out west we get hit by a lot of train traffic that causes some significant issues in terms of our getting places on time,” Meredith said.