Happy Getaway Day, folks. We have one more report and then we’re on to the weekend.

Thanks for reading,

Ike

Interstate plans

This coming year is expected to be a busy one for road work around Birmingham, reports AL.com’s Greg Garrison.

Even if you don’t live in Birmingham, there’s a good chance it’ll affect you at some point if you travel the state. I’m particularly talking to those of us who’ve spent unexpected long periods of time on Interstate 65 south of Birmingham.

A project is going to add lanes to I-65 from Alabaster to Calera and possibly get you to those crowded beaches a little quicker.

Work also will continue on the billion-dollar, on-again, off-again, on-again Northern Beltline. That roadway will eventually run from I-59 northeast of Trussville to where I-459 ends near Bessemer. It’ll arc over the northern side of Birmingham. This year’s work won’t be so much road construction as laying the groundwork — environmental studies, acquiring the land needed, etc.

Another project I’ll mention would greatly affect people who commute from Birmingham up I-59 but also statewide travelers to some extent. The Alabama Department of Transportation is working on widening I-59 from I-459 to north of Chalkville Mountain Road. That should greatly improve what has long been a rush-hour grind between Birmingham and Trussville — as well as quicken an occasional slowdown for central and southwest Alabama travelers headed to northeast Alabama.

Seafood report

Both the red snapper season and the wild-oyster season come to an end on New Year’s Eve, reports AL.com’s Lawrence Specker.

At midnight Tuesday, the moment the big MoonPie drops on Mobile, red snapper will be closed for business in Alabama. According to the Marine Resources Division, the season’s harvest will fall almost 90,000 pounds short of the quota. But that will be a little more than the 2023 catch and a lot more than the 2022 haul.

Marine Resources Division Director Scott Bannon didn’t blame the low catch on the fish population … or the skill of the fishermen. He pointed to rough water brought about by a busy Atlantic hurricane season.

Regarding the wild-oyster harvest, boats have brought in between 23,000 and 24,000 sacks. That’s going to be another year-over-year decrease and about half the haul of the recent oyster peak of around 50,000 sacks.

These numbers, as well as the season’s ending dates, do not apply to farmed oysters.

Just say nyet

It doesn’t seem, as far as we know, that any Russian hackers were behind the Russian covers of Taylor Swift songs playing on loop from a Tuscaloosa radio station for at least a few hours last week.

It turns out that Russian covers of Taylor Swift songs are even creepier than that sounds. I’m proud to say there are no reports of American citizens offering to surrender to the Russians just to make it stop.

The nonstop Swift covers were heard on Alt 101.7 FM, reports AL.com’s Heather Gann, and it blew up on social media as people tried to figure out what was going on.

The station hadn’t issued a release as of our deadlines, so we can’t say for sure, but beyond those who are sold on the Russian hackers hypothesis, some in the radio business seem to believe it was a publicity stunt as WQRR 101.7 transitions from an alternative station to a Christian-music station.

Radio stunts, if that’s what it was, usually don’t make news, but this one managed to go viral across social-media platforms. So, perhaps, well done, Alt 101.7.

More Alabama News

Born on This Date

In 1948, guitarist Larry Byrom of Huntsville.

In 1959, Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker Andre Tippett of Birmingham.

In 1979, pop-country singer/songwriter Walker Hayes of Mobile.

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