It's now been dubbed Huntsville's Malfunction Junction and the confluence of Memorial Parkway and Interstate 565 will soon undergo scrutiny.

The Huntsville city council on Thursday approved a $170,187 contract with Birmingham-based Barge Design Solutions to conduct a corridor study on the busiest interchange in one of the state's fastest growing cities.

About 110,000 motorists daily travel through the interchange that in every direction has only one lane of connection between the parkway and I-565, city engineer Kathy Martin said. And that one lane typically leads to traffic flow issues.

Martin said Friday that the corridor study will take traffic counts, consider future traffic projections in the area and present three alternative solutions to the congestion. The study has a due date of March 31, 2019.

Martin said Councilwoman Jennie Robinson gave the interchange its nickname - borrowing from the moniker of the interchange in Birmingham between I-65 and I-20/59 that's now undergoing a $750 million facelift.

"She affectionately referred to it as our malfunction junction," Martin said. "Anybody who travels this intersection during peak hours, you know what the problem is."

And if you don't, it's traffic backing up for more than a mile in an effort to merge from I-565 onto Memorial Parkway during peak travel hours. And those backups in the far right lane typically make for a de facto merge lane next to it that further condenses travel lanes.

Martin pointed out that I-565 is four lanes wide as it approaches Memorial Parkway. But with the exit lane and the merge lane, half of the travel area is eliminated.

Traffic also routinely backs up at least a mile on Memorial Parkway going northbound as cars exit into the single lane to loop around to I-565 westbound.

It's these headaches that have prompted the corridor study - which will stretch from Governors Drive south of I-565 to Oakwood Drive north of the interstate.

"This is really the first step," Martin said.

That translates into no imminent invasion of the orange traffic barrels in the area, though they could be coming soon enough.

But just as the Alabama Department of Transportation has hired a contractor to do a preliminary study on alleviating traffic congestion on the west end of I-565 and the I-65 interchange that's due by the end of the year, these projects develop slowly.

And there's also the chase to get money for the project, which remains undetermined at this point, Martin said.

"By the city taking this step necessary to begin a corridor study in this area, this will definitely help advance the project on the state and federal level," Martin said. "The output for this study will come up with three alternative designs and they will include cost estimates for each. Along the way we'll be working closely with ALDOT and the (U.S. Federal Highway Administration) to come up with these three alternatives and the consultant will provide cost estimates to advance this project."

Improving the interchange has long been on the city's list of to-do projects when it comes to roads. This first step, though, is part of what would ultimately be a road construction marathon if the project gets the funding.

"I know the mayor has spoken many times in the past, any time you involve state or federal funding, it's a decade-long kind of project," Martin said. "But our thought is we've got start somewhere with this major interchange in the heart of our city. At least taking the initial steps to figure out some alternatives of what would relieve that congestion, it's a path forward.

"Once an alternative is decided upon by all parties, they will have to seek funding and design the project and decide how they want to construct the project. I hate to say it, it's many years down the road but this gets us in that direction. It advances the project."