Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville is reopening a closed older entry gate to ease rush hour traffic pressure on Gates 9 and 7, the two most heavily used entrances to the growing military, NASA and tech center off Interstate 565.

Starting Monday morning, Gate 10 on Patton Road will open for traffic entering and leaving the arsenal, Redstone Arsenal Commander Col. Brian Cozine said Wednesday. Operating hours will be 5:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. daily for inbound and outbound traffic, Cozine said. The gate will be outbound only from 1-5 p.m.

“We’re experiencing increased traffic levels at our busiest gates and we’re making adjustments,” Cozine said. “We realize that slowdowns at our access points have a domino effect in the surrounding communities and we’re doing our part to ease some of that pressure.”

Traffic at arsenal main Gate 9 off I-565 and at Gate 7 off Zierdt Road is routinely slowed by large numbers of employees arriving from homes on the fast-growing west side of Madison County. “I encourage commuters who use Gate 7 off Zierdt Road or Gate 9 near I-565 to consider using Gate 10,” Cozine said. “We will continue to monitor traffic flow and adjust our gate access accordingly.”

Gate 10 is east of Gate 9 but offers the long, straight chute of Jordan Lane and Patton Road between I-565 and the gate, Cozine said. It also offers a direct drive from Gate 10 to the area holding the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, U.S. Army Materiel Command and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, among other large tenants.

The arsenal’s 70 organizations have approximately 45,500 employees. Not all are entering the arsenal every day – teleworking survived the pandemic for some workers – but the Army’s traffic challenge is meeting the different and changing needs of all those operations, a garrison spokeswoman said.

By size comparison to the arsenal, Encompass Health, one of Alabama’s top employers, has 29,000 employees in Birmingham and Regions Bank has approximately 20,000.