Madison County’s top official used his annual State of the County speech Tuesday to release a tsunami of numbers showing the county’s growth.

Among them was a 2019 population estimate of 111,000 people just in unincorporated Madison County. That would make the area outside Huntsville the fifth-largest city in Alabama if incorporated, County Commission Chairman Dale Strong said. He added that the total county population is now 370,000.

Strong’s speech to the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville-Madison County is one of a series delivered each year by local leaders. Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle’s gave his overview of Huntsville in November, 2019, and Madison Mayor Paul Finley’s is coming Friday.

Strong gave status reports on county road projects starting with the $9.3 million widening of Blake Bottom Road. He said that project, recently funded by the largest federal grant in the county’s history, will make commuting safer from the northwest part of the county to job centers near Redstone Arsenal.

Strong listed other road improvement priorities but did not give timelines for their completion, including:

· Wall-Triana widening to lessen congestion.

· Widening of Jeff Road and construction of new bridges on Old Highway 431.

· Expansion of Alabama 53, the northern bypass and Zeirdt Road improvements

· A new Interstate 565 interchange at Town Madison to improve access to Redstone Arsenal through Gate 7.

Strong said the county is working with “our local partners” to complete plans to widen U.S. 72 from the Village of Providence mixed-use development to County Line Road. And he said the widening of Winchester Road is “almost complete.”

Strong said unemployment in the county is a record low of 2.1%. Residential building permits increased 36% in 2019, he said, and commercial construction permits by 97%. Subdivision plans submitted to the county for approval were up 156% over 2018, he said.

Departing from the numbers, Strong recognized three people in the audience for special contributions to the county:

Commissioner Roger Jones, a 20-year veteran of the body who has announced this is his last term.

Dr. Rony Najjar, chief trauma surgeon at Huntsville Hospital, who leads a level one trauma center and what Strong called the largest emergency department in Alabama.

Recently retired U.S. Space & Rocket Center CEO Dr. Deborah Barnhart, who led the center in 2019 when it recorded a record 1 million, 50,000 visitors.