I remember seeing I-22 being built as a kid, I was about 9-13 years of age (I'm 27 now). We always went through Birmingham to get to Memphis, and we had to bypass the new I-22 and I remember my grandpa telling me how much faster we'd get to Memphis when it was finished. He's now bedridden and I take care of him. I wish I could take him up to see his family in Memphis so he could ride on the new Interstate. It's super nice. Now from my area Phenix City, Alabama to Memphis, TN it's only a 5 hour and 40 min drive, instead of the 6 hours and 30 min commute it used to take. Can't wait to be able to visit Memphis again, and take that new interstate all the way to Memphis from Birmingham.
That I-65/I-22 interchange really is beautiful, and Interstate 22 itself is a pleasant nice new drive through the hills of Alabama and Mississippi. Thanks for the ride!
Looks great makes me think warm thoughts as it's still a wintery spring here in Canada. Love the lighting through out the video excellent choice of music. Awesome as always.
Very nice ride- wanted to wait and enjoy it with no distractions and all- Birmingham is a lot more interesting than I thought it would be- and it is interesting to see them upgrading their highways as well! Very nice ride- and also nice touch with the soundtrack of Lynrd Skynrd! Nice touch- and also using Sweet Home Alabama- even nicer!
Great video, Jim! LOVED seeing the new I-22 interchange. That was very impressive, as well as expensive! It was also good to see that the button copy signs were still in place on the overhead sign bridges on the southbound side just after the I-20/I-59 interchange. I can pretty much assume that they will be taken down and replaced when that project is completed. Lastly, thanks for filming down US 31 in Fultondale to the I-65 interchange. I watched the videos of the 4-27-2011 tornado that went through Fultondale that were posted by Terry Sasser and it's good to see that area restored to a somewhat normal state. That tornado was part of the same supercell that produced the long-track tornado that hit Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Looks like they bounced back pretty well. Great video, as always!
When Sweet Home Alabama started playing my wife perked up and thought I was watching one of those "How Bama Fans Watched" videos by FunnyMaine. Great video, as always. The transition from that 70s ramp to the recent I-22 interchange was really neat.
Did everyone notice the Top Golf being built in downtown? Tall poles at 9:40 through 9:50. Impressive that Birmingham is now one of the smallest cities to have four mainline interstates (20, 22, 59, 65).
Birmingham urban core is 750,000+ at this very moment is in the works for regional cooperation . Birmingham still is urban an large as memphis or nashville . in reality its supposed to be where atlanta is when it comes to growth an now its happening . Birmingham the sleeping giant is waking up on fire 🔥💪 .. #Magic city #205 . #Alabama's big city metro 1.12 million people . 4 interstates . new stadium & intetstate infrastructure being built . down town growing. Rapid bus transit system coming. World games 2021 coming . jefferson shelby counties by themselves are at almost if not 1 million people.
Man, when I saw Birmingham in the title, I thought mmmmm Whataburger. My closest Whataburger(5 hrs) is the Fultondale location on 65N. Great video, glad to see your new season on the way. Now I'm craving a trip to WB!
And I'm glad to see you doing videos down there and Birmingham I have family down there and look like Birmingham is definitely growing up especially with i-22 up toward Memphis
That high mast lighting, I remember that it used to be everywhere back in the '70s. Kinda' nice to see it again. And, WOO-HOO, my favorite Skynyrd tune (Call me the breeze).
aweosme as always hah + great music again , and heck u always learn something new .. i had no idea that LS was from Florida hah , this down looks nice tho
I agree especially with the new proposed 50,000 seat downtown football stadium in uptown right by top golf. Birmingham also is getting dave n busters . lets not forget no other metro in alabama has surpassed 500k. Birmingham is at 1.2 million .
@@Freewayjim The construction is finished. Also, you need to film 459, which is similar to 285 in Atlanta. It's not as rough as the downtown area. The nicer communities are out away from city like Atlanta, too.
@@bamaczar09 I-459 is not similar to I-285 at all other than it's an Interstate that by-passes a city, aside from the two stack interchanges it's not very interesting at all and would be filming for the sake of filming. I hope to see the I-20/59 finished product someday, it looks very impressive.
Another great ride Jim, evidently the guy in the van at (4:07), must have been on his cellphone and not paying attention when he tried to merge into your lane, glad to see you're still in the captains chair cruising the highways like a champ! Keep on trucking (FWJ)!!!!!!!!!
Great ride! As much as ALDOT is revamping the Red Mountain Expressway interchange, they didn't go far enough. Ramps like the one you went on are horrendous!
This is very interesting, Birmingham has way nicer freeways than I imagined, I really liked the northern portion of I-65. Also I see you’re posting on Tuesdays rather than Mondays now, any specific reason for the change?
Another video producer in the FreewayJim Facebook group had reserved Mondays for video pinning so just for this trip I did not mind doing the videos on Tuesday, when I hopefully take a big trip this summer, we'll be back to a Monday schedule.
Interesting. I understand the I-20/59 & I-65 interchange is one of the most dangerous interchanges in the country. I guess merging from the left is a big challenge. It is set up like two diverging diamonds, which you would think wasn't too bad. Fun fact about the song "Sweet Home Alabama": It was written in response to Neil Young's song "Southern Man". You can definitely hear it in the line, "Well, I heard Mister Young sing about her. / Well, I heard old Neil Young put her down. / Well, I hope Neil Young will remember / southern man don't need him around anyhow.".
Now I live in that area and that exit at the Whataburger is notorious for backups all the way back to Alabaster almost at peak times of the way your lucky you got out of there
You mentioned the extra unused overpasses at the new I-22 eastern terminus interchange at I-65. For what I'm thinking, maybe ALDOT is thinking of the day, distant as it may be, that it could extend I-22 eastward to connect directly to I-20 to where it splits away from I-59.
Wonder if they will ever get the city built,lots of cranes and footings,reminds me of the spaghetti junction being built in Atlanta,we always knew Birmingham would grow but it ain't Atlanta just yet
Man, I love these videos. Two comments about Birmingham. One, if you are going to Chattanooga from Montgomery, go through Atlanta. Atlanta's traffic is bad, but I think it's much worse around Birmingham, at least around rush hour. Two, the interstate signs in Birmingham for I-59 north say Gadsden and not Chattanooga. The I-59 signs don't say Chattanooga until you get through Gadsden. The signs in Chattanooga leading to I-59 south say Birmingham. Maybe Chattanooga should change theirs to Fort Payne. Or better yet, Trenton. The first time I made the drive, the Gadsden threw me off a bit.
It's not on 459 where things really slow down. 65 between Birmingham and Montgomery is two lanes most of the way. We made the trip yesterday and things backed up 25 miles before the 459 interchange. The year before it was thick the whole way between the two cities. There is construction going on too. I do wonder if 85 and 285 wouldn't be faster since 285 seems to be less traveled on the west side. Gadsden no big deal. It just seems odd. One more I-59 tidbit: There is a funny exit sign at Ft. Payne reading "49th Street." Seems out of place in such a small town and it always cracks me up.
Hey freewayjim I don't know exactly where you going for your summer series but I would love to see you take that Atlanta to the Canadian border route going up I-85 and then connect with I-95 that would be definitely nice to see
Freeeway Jim, have you been through one of those diverging diamond interchanges yet? RU-vid has an interesting video about a new one in Washington State.
I was wondering, when you do the Birmingham AL videos and drive through that area, do you still see leftover damage from the April 27th, 2011 tornado outbreak ?
No prob, thanks...I really don't travel as much as people think, one big trip a year and maybe a day or weekend trip to someplace not too far, but I'm glad you enjoy the videos and thank you for watching.
Well I understand that freewayjim you have to do things with the family sometime especially your old lady she should have definitely enjoy the trip out west
I have no interest in Hawaii and Colorado Springs is not really along the way to anyplace I'd be going, but there's a better chance I'll get to Colo Srings before I do Hawaii :)
I've already filmed those cities...I don't do long distance drives like that either. Look I live in Atlanta, I just can't go out and film PHX to DEN for the fun of it and that's not a route I would have any reason to drive in the first place.
Not really, I just take trips here and there when I can, usually one big one a year and maybe a day trip or two when it presents itself. Over the years I have been able to drive in all 48 states and shoot a video in most of them.
The line is actually "In Birmingham they love McGovern. Still sarcastic though. A dig at how Democrat leaning Birmingham always is to the rest of the state. George McGovern was the very leftist challenger to Richard Nixon in 1968.
Hey sence u is close to ATL. Can u make a video in the summer of Atlanta,GA to Kalahari Resorts, Sandusky, OH. I know that sounds like a way long trip but u can do a part to part video right, anyway the reason y i ask u that is bc i have a vacation trip to Ohio,Sandusky.
#1 I have no reason to make that drive and #2 I don't record long periods like that, longest continuous video I ever did was a little over two hours so I'll pass on that.
I know, u can make it like a part 1 to part 2 video, but if u dont want to do that i understand. I just wanted to know what it looks like heading from south to midwest, because i have a vacation trip to Ohio which i never been to ever in my life.
Darrius Elder There’s a ton of videos out there that might give you an idea of what it would look like along the way. Long distance trips like that don’t work well with the types of videos we do, it just don’t work out like that.
Darrius, use Google street view, you can see the road from the drivers view that way. It takes a lot of time and money to do these video so unless you've got $5,000 handy to fund this, I'm not your guy.
Sooo... if & whenever I decide to go to Birmingham, I should be prepared to phone in an insurance claim for one of these ignorants sideswiping MY car? Or should I expect HEAVY retaliation from the L.D.S. attack that follows me honking/birding said ignorant?
