<p>Just got back from a trip down to Tuscaloosa and back to Illinois on Friday and Saturday and wanted to report a couple of long road construction back-ups. On Friday and Saturday there were long back-ups in both the Southbound and Northbound lanes on I-65 due to repairs of the bridges over the Tenn. River. We by-passed through Decatur, Al on Saturday to avoid the delay.</p>
<p>Also, on Saturday there were long back-ups in Nashville due to repairs on I-24 (I think to the bridge over the Cumberland River, with the back-up in the Southbound lanes of I-24 being miles long and the back-up in the Northbound lanes of I-65 being at least a mile. We by passed most of the mess I-65 by exiting off and driving the city streets North through downtown Nashville.</p>
<p>FWIW, the Southbound backup looked just as bad on Saturday at around 11:00 am on the way back home as it did on Friday at 4:00 pm on the way down. Good to hear that it should be gone in a week.</p>
<p>With the construction near Nashville, do you think it’s better to take 57/24 or 65 down from the Chicago area? For us 65 is shorter, but it seems there is perpetual construction on that road (and on the rare occasions when there’s not, we always seem to encounter huge accidents). I’m not familiar enough with roads along the way to fashion a good detour if we run into huge backups.</p>
<p>FWIW, the Southbound backup looked just as bad on Saturday at around 11:00 am on the way back home as it did on Friday at 4:00 pm on the way down. Good to hear that it should be gone in a week.</p>
<p>Yeah, I didn’t mean on weekends. I was meaning mid-day on M-F. Weekends are a wild-card.</p>
<p>I don’t know that 57/24 or 65 is going to make a difference because the jam up occurs in the section of interstate where 65 and 24 join each other heading south into Nashville. I think the best you can do is to bypass around that portion when you get to Nashville.</p>
<p>From NY you won’t be on I-65. There is construction on I-59 for about 15 miles,which you’ll pick up on the west side of Chattanooga. It doesn’t normally stop traffic, but you’ll slow down to about 40 mph in a narrow single lane. </p>
<p>After that construction, you’ll want to get on I-459. It skirts around Birmingham. I-59 is torn up and makes you detour. </p>
<p>Once you’re south of DC it’s a nice pleasant drive. Not too much traffic, even around the cities of Knoxville and Chattanooga, unless you’re going through between 4-6 pm. </p>
<p>Don’t forget to set your clock back an hour when you get into Alabama. Roll Tide.</p>
<p>right, you won’t be coming down I-65…that’s the route that those north of alabama will be taking. I-65 goes from Lake Michigan down into Alabama. </p>
<p>you’re coming from the NE, so you’ll be taking Interstates that are to the east of I-65…you’ll be traveling on kind of a east to west diagonal.</p>
<p>The I-65 construction in Nashville runs from 8pm on Friday nights through 5am on Monday mornings (they’re doing bridgework over the Cumberland River.) It’s actually not that bad; I had to sit in it for 2 of the past 3 weekends coming back from Ohio to TN. What happens is that you’ll take the west loop around Nashville to get back on 65 south as opposed to the east loop around Nashville which your GPS will get snippy about you ignoring ;)</p>
<p>DH & I were thinking that it will have to be done within the next few weeks, as I can’t imagine a Titans game happening with that construction around the stadium.</p>
<p>The article indicates that repairs are scheduled to be completed by Aug. 31st, and states a specific concern about traffic during the weekend of Saturday, Aug. 11th.</p>
<p>So does that mean if we pass through Nashville before 3 pm on Friday 8/10 we shouldn’t hit construction backups, or are there reduced lanes even when the construction work isn’t going on? If we can avoid a big delay by leaving earlier, we will certainly do that.</p>
<p>There were no back-ups when I went through at that time this last Friday. I took I65 south were it splits away from I24 just north of downtown Nashville.</p>
<p>Bethsmom: with that timing you should be fine. School starts in Metro Nashville Public Schools tomorrow, so you may hit a little bit of school traffic, but that’s generally just an issue on local roads. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.</p>
<p>I am going to be driving down 81 to 40 to 59. Is there any traffic to avoid? I am thinking of booking the La Quinta(unfortunately) in Kingsport TN which is 11 hours out. That is my limit I think. Then 6 hours to T-town the next day. It’s a sat nite so everything seems to be booked. They don’t guarantee non-smoking which stinks(literally ha ha).</p>
<p>^^^^I’m wondering about that too. My D left today (sob) and will be on that route also. Does anybody know if there are still detours on 59 south of Birmingham?</p>