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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Starting at 9:00 a.m. on January 23rd, several lanes will be closed on Old Madison Pike at Research Park Boulevard in Huntsville as part of a major construction project.

Drivers can expect the area to become very congested as construction ramps up. Construction crews will start moving traffic over to the southside of this bridge.

The road which is now a 5 lane bridge will shrink to a two-lane bridge with one lane open in either direction.

This is all part of a larger project.

The City of Huntsville is reconstructing the bridge, so they can add additional lanes underneath the bridge.

Construction crews will work in stages as they rebuild one side of the bridge at a time.

“As part of this project, we have no choice but to reconstruct that bridge. It’s in desperate need of reconstruction because there are no sidewalks or pedestrian or bicycle facilities on it. When we reconstruct this bridge, it will have 6 lanes across the bridge in addition to 10-foot multi-use paths on both sides of the bridge,” said Kathy Martin of Director of Huntsville City Engineering.

The city is estimating that it could take up to a year and a half for the bridge to be fully reconstructed — because it’s being done in phases with traffic still on it.