Mall Road paving work is going to start in four phases as they shut down certain sections to enable paving of the road from Florence Blvd to Cox Creek. Up to the time when the announcement was made that it was going to be repaved and the road improved all I had heard about Mall Road was how so many people were speeding on it and how dangerous the intersection with Hough Road was. Maybe in the improvements they will yet add another Traffic light intersection there at Hough Road in the process.
I don't know, as I'm certainly no expert, but I believe our Traffic engineering, or lack of it, discourages Industrial and business growth rather than enhances it. It seems like it's almost impossible to make it through Cox Creek Blvd without catching several of the traffic lights around the mall area. Then if you consider the Florence Industrial park area for any industry to locate there they are going to have to negotiate traveling along that corridor or they can maybe try a short cut through St Florian and really experience a bottleneck. At least the new traffic light helped in some ways but in others it also helped slow things down. Also St. Florian's experimentation with reducing the speed limit through there to 25 miles per hour really was popular and had such growth potential for the area.
Again I don't know and am not experienced in that area but I've always heard that for an area to be attractive to industry and experience growth they needed access to transportation outlets such as access to rail and have a good airport as well as great traffic engineering along the streets to promote traffic flow and not curtail it. The Shoals area will find itself located centrally between two automotive plants, one in Huntsville and the other in Mississippi, but we still have a very small insignificant airport and communities that greatly restrict traffic flow rather than enhance it, or so it seems.
Maybe I'm wrong and things will pick up and grow, I hope I am wrong. Time will tell but I love this area and it's one of the best I've lived in for many reasons but it's also one of the worst as far as being attractive to business and attracting industry to the area.