The summer travel season is projected to be one for the record books, and chances are that Interstate 65 through Alabama will become jammed with out-of-state vehicles heading south to Alabama’s beaches.

Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, a Republican who is considered as a possible governor’s candidate in 2026, is angling for I-65 to be wider and more accommodating to the surge in traffic experienced in recent years.

“Every single person who is reading this statement has experienced the frustration of sitting immobile on I-65 as if it were the world’s largest parking lot,” Ainsworth, R-Guntersville, said in a statement. “Widening I-65 in order to relieve the congestion and serve taxpayers in the manner that they expect and deserve must be a top priority.”

Alabama lawmakers are moving forward on signifying a widening of the interstate as a priority after Ainsworth has, for years, advocated for a six-lane I-65 from the Alabama-Tennessee border to Mobile.

Much of the interstate is a four-lane road, though it’s expanded through metropolitan Birmingham, Montgomery, and portions of Mobile.

The Senate backed a resolution last week urging the Alabama Department of Transportation to study and prioritize improvements and additional lane capacity for I-65 with a goal of having “an appropriate number of lanes in each direction on all sections” of the interstate. The issue even has its own website, at www.gowide65.com.

“I have asked ALDOT to get us a strategy on how we would expand and where we would expand I-65 from the state line coming into Huntsville all the way down to Mobile,” said State Senator Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, where approximately 54,000 vehicles travel daily along I-65.

Gudger was the resolution’s sponsor in the State Senate. The Alabama House has yet to pass it.

“This is just a strategy,” said Gudger. “We are not talking about construction now. We need to have a game plan before (the start of) the game.”

Focus on Shelby County

A statement from ALDOT indicates the agency’s commitment to the project and acknowledgement of some of the work that has already been completed or is being planned.

A majority of that effort is focused on Shelby County.

I-65 was widened a few years ago from four to six lanes from Exit 242 in Pelham to Exit 238 in Alabaster, an approximately 3-1/2-mile stretch that cost the state around $70 million.

The next I-65 project is much longer and expensive. Plans are underway to widen more than 7 miles of the interstate from Exit 238 in Alabaster to Exit 231 in Calera south of Birmingham. That project, which calls for six lanes along an “extremely busy commuter corridor,” is estimated to cost around $200 million, according to the state.

I-65′s total length through Alabama is approximately 366 miles.

No bids have taken place yet on the project, as the state continues to solidify its funding.

The project is expected to receive around $20 million from county and local governments. Shelby County officials in March allocated $14.5 million toward the project while cities like Alabaster and Calera have each made commitments.

Related content: Shelby County leaders work together to accelerate expansion of I-65

The project was expected to originally begin in 2024, though local officials have said it was “imperative” to move up its timetable so that construction begins “sooner rather than later.”

The stretch of I-65 through Birmingham is among the busiest roads in Alabama, with around 84,000 vehicles traveling along I-65 south toward Alabaster daily. The bulk of the I-65 traffic through the Birmingham metro area is from Homewood north to Alabama State Route 378/Finley Boulevard.

ALDOT is expected to take bids later this year on an “extensive rehabilitation” to the existing I-65 bridges over the Tennessee River. The project, the agency says, will extend the lift of 50-year-old bridges. The current cost estimate for that project is $30 million.

“ALDOT is committed to addressing Alabama’s capacity needs,” said Tony Harris, spokesman for ALDOT, adding that the process of prospering the agency’s long-term plan for fiscal year 2024-2027 is underway in which lane widening along I-65 could get included.

“We’re already looking at the most congested segment of I-65 and other roadways,” Harris said. “We’re also continuing to focus on new and improved roadways to spur economic development, with a focus on congestion relief and economic development roads as required by the Rebuild Alabama Act.”

The Rebuild Alabama Act, adopted in 2019, is financed largely through a 10-cent-per-gallon state fuel tax, and is aimed at funneling more tax funds toward improving roads throughout the state.

2024 focus

Gudger said his goal is to have a strategy formalized on what to do with I-65 before the start of the 2024 legislative session, which will begin sometime next spring.

“That way we can have more knowledge (about the project) so we can go forward,” said Gudger. “It will take a team from ALDOT that has been working with us and the federal DOT and elected officials at the federal and state level to make this happen.”

He added, “The stars and moons have to align to make this work to expand (the interstate statewide) but we have to start somewhere.”

Ainsworth, who has tweeted pictures of him sitting in traffic jams along I-65, said the interstate serves “a main artery in the state” utilized by “tourists, truckers, businesspeople, and everyday Alabamians who simply need to get from Point A to Point B in a timely, hassle-free manner in order to lead their lives.”

David Hughes, an associate professor of political science at Auburn University at Montgomery, said the lieutenant governor’s push to improve the interstate “probably has the political legs long-term” if Ainsworth runs for governor by 2026, as he is projected to do. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is term-limited, so the governor’s race will be wide open in three years.

Hughes said the I-65 project “can be a good way to make friends with municipalities up and down the I-65 corridor.”

Said Ainsworth, “Alleviating the traffic problems on I-65 is a long-term project that must be approached much like eating an elephant — one bite at a time — but if Alabama leaders have the courage to start the project and the tenacity to see it through to the end, we can make an already great state even better.”