Mastin Lake overpass opens: the Restore Our Roads scorecard, and what is still closed
The Mastin Lake Road overpass on Memorial Parkway opened October 16, 2026; the underpass beneath it did not. Here is every Restore Our Roads project with the status the City lists, plus the two new Limestone County design contracts.
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The Problem
A ribbon-cutting tells you one thing opened. It does not tell you what is still closed beside it, or where the other nine projects in the same program stand. If you route crews across Memorial Parkway, hold a lease in the U.S. 72 West corridor, or are waiting on Limestone County access, a photograph of a mayor with scissors is not a plan. You need the whole board, with the dates and the hedges intact.
The Playbook
On October 16, 2026, the City of Huntsville, the Alabama Department of Transportation and the Governor's office opened the Memorial Parkway overpass at Mastin Lake Road. Mayor Tommy Battle's framing was the headline: drivers can now run more than ten miles of Memorial Parkway with no traffic signals and no intersections.
The underpass beneath it is still closed. The City expects it finished before Thanksgiving. That is an expectation, not a commitment, and crossing the Parkway at Mastin Lake is a different problem from driving along it.
The overpass is one line item in Restore Our Roads, the City's cost-sharing agreement with ALDOT, which the City describes as a $250 million agreement. Its program page carries no date, so every status below is simply how the City listed it when we read the page in October 2026.
| Status | Projects | |---|---| | Complete | Martin Road interchange; Research Park Boulevard; Cecil Ashburn Drive; Zierdt Road widening; Church Street realignment and widening; Dr. Joseph Lowery Boulevard; U.S. 72 East improvements | | Under construction | North Parkway at Mastin Lake; Northern Bypass | | Environmental review and right-of-way acquisition | U.S. 72 West at University Drive |
U.S. 72 West is the long pole. Environmental review and right-of-way acquisition is the earliest stage on the board, and this month's ribbon was somewhere else entirely.
The next two items the City is buying. On October 8, 2026 the Council approved two engineering design contracts for roads in Huntsville-annexed Limestone County. The release publishes no dollar amount for either.
| Firm | Scope | Milestone | |---|---|---| | Sain Associates | Northbound access improvements at the Greenbrier Parkway interchange at I-565, plus upgrades about a half-mile north at Greenbrier Road: traffic corridor analysis, field surveys, new roadway geometry | Design expected complete April 2028 | | Kimley-Horn and Associates | Traffic impact study and intersection improvements on U.S. 72 near East Limestone Road and Holladay Boulevard | Study expected July 2027 |
The City frames the Greenbrier work as part of road improvements in a proposed tax increment district, meant to ease traffic for employers including Mazda Toyota, Polaris and Amazon, and the future Eli Lilly campus. Proposed is doing real work in that sentence, and a design contract is planning money, not construction.
Four things to do with this before you plan around it:
- Re-read the program page yourself and date your copy. It is undated, so a status is only as good as the day you read it.
- Keep "along the Parkway" and "across the Parkway" apart. The overpass fixed one; the underpass is the other, and it is open work.
- Treat April 2028 and July 2027 as design and study milestones. Neither is a shovel date, and no source we reviewed gives a construction start for either Limestone project.
- Watch U.S. 72 West for a status change. It is the only Restore Our Roads item still in right-of-way acquisition, and a move off that line is the real news.
District One Council Member Michelle Watkins described the area as growing, with a recent surge in new home construction and new retail. That is her characterisation of her district; no source we read publishes a home count, a retail square footage, or a traffic number for it. No source we reviewed gives a measured travel-time saving from the overpass either, so this page does not estimate one.
Download the Memorial Parkway Status Sheet
A one-page board of every Restore Our Roads project with the status the City lists, what opened and what is still closed at Mastin Lake, both Limestone County design contracts with their milestones, and the specific changes that would move any of it. It is a planning aid, not engineering, legal, real-estate, or investment advice.
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Sources & Data
- City of Huntsville (opens in new tab)"City of Huntsville, state leaders celebrate opening of Mastin Lake Road overpass on Memorial Parkway" (October 16, 2026). Opening date, participating agencies, Mayor Battle's ten-miles-without-signals framing, the underpass still under construction with a before-Thanksgiving expectation, and Council Member Michelle Watkins' comments.
- City of Huntsville (opens in new tab)Restore Our Roads program page (undated; read October 2026). The $250 million ALDOT cost-sharing agreement and the per-project status list used in the table above.
- City of Huntsville (opens in new tab)"City of Huntsville moves forward with design contracts on Limestone County roads" (October 8, 2026). Both design contracts, their scopes, the April 2028 and July 2027 milestones, the proposed tax increment district framing, and the named employers. No dollar amounts are published.
Informational only. Project statuses are as an undated City program page listed them in October 2026 and may have changed. This page states no travel-time saving, traffic forecast, construction start date, or property-value effect, because no source we reviewed publishes one.
Transcript
This is the full narration script the episode audio was produced from. Theme music is not transcribed.
This is The Rocket City Brief, the Huntsville update for operators. Today: the Mastin Lake overpass opened on Memorial Parkway, one piece of that same interchange did not, and the City's own road list says where the rest of the program stands.
Here is the short version, because it changes how you route a crew this week. The overpass is open. The underpass beneath it is not. The City expects that one finished before Thanksgiving, which is an expectation, not a commitment.
On October sixteenth, the City, the state transportation department and the Governor's office cut the ribbon on the Memorial Parkway overpass at Mastin Lake Road. Mayor Tommy Battle's framing was the headline number: drivers can now run more than ten miles of Memorial Parkway with no traffic signals and no intersections.
That overpass is one line item in Restore Our Roads, the City's cost-sharing agreement with the state transportation department. The City describes it as a two hundred fifty million dollar agreement covering major projects in the corridors that carry this metro.
So treat the City's own program page as a scorecard. As it lists things today, seven projects are marked complete: the Martin Road interchange, Research Park Boulevard, Cecil Ashburn Drive, the Zierdt Road widening, the Church Street realignment and widening, Doctor Joseph Lowery Boulevard, and the Highway Seventy-Two East improvements.
Two are still marked under construction: North Parkway at Mastin Lake, which matches the underpass still being open work, and the Northern Bypass.
And one is the long pole. Highway Seventy-Two West, at University Drive, is still listed in environmental review and right-of-way acquisition. That is the earliest stage on the board. The City's page still lists that corridor in environmental review and right-of-way acquisition, and this month's ribbon was somewhere else entirely.
One caveat on all of that. The City's program page carries no date, so every status here is simply how the City lists it as of this week. Re-check it before you commit to anything.
For an operator, the useful read is narrow and real. Parkway drivers can now pass this crossing without a traffic signal. Crossing the Parkway at Mastin Lake is a different matter, because the underpass is still closed. The sources we reviewed give no measured travel-time saving, so we are not going to put a number on it.
District One Council Member Michelle Watkins described the area as growing, with a recent surge in new home construction and new retail. That is her characterisation of her district. No source we read publishes a home count, a retail square footage, or a traffic number for that area, so we are not going to give you one.
One quick second item, because it is the next thing the City is buying. On October eighth, the Council approved two engineering design contracts for roads in Huntsville-annexed Limestone County. The release publishes no dollar amounts for either one.
The first went to Sain Associates, for northbound access improvements at the Greenbrier Parkway interchange at Interstate Five Sixty-Five, plus upgrades about a half-mile north at Greenbrier Road. Traffic corridor analysis, field surveys, and new roadway geometry. The City expects that design work complete by April twenty twenty-eight.
The second went to Kimley-Horn and Associates, for a traffic impact study and intersection improvements on Highway Seventy-Two near East Limestone Road and Holladay Boulevard. The study is expected by July twenty twenty-seven.
The City frames the Greenbrier work as part of road improvements in a proposed tax increment district, meant to ease traffic for employers including Mazda Toyota, Polaris and Amazon, and the future Eli Lilly campus. Proposed is doing real work in that sentence. Design contracts are planning money, not construction.
What to watch next. First, the Mastin Lake underpass actually opening, against that before-Thanksgiving expectation. Second, a status change on Highway Seventy-Two West, which is the only Restore Our Roads item still in right-of-way. Third, whether either Limestone design contract produces a construction letting, because April twenty twenty-eight and July twenty twenty-seven are design and study milestones, not shovel dates.
The honest status line, if you only remember one thing: the overpass is open, the underpass is not, and the next two Limestone items are a study due July twenty twenty-seven and a design due April twenty twenty-eight. No source we reviewed gives a construction start date for either. The ribbon you see today is the end of a queue that starts with a design contract.
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