Zierdt Road Safety Concern (Huntsville, Madison: how much, new house, neighborhood)

[raindrop423]

Is anyone else terrified of the drop offs on Zierdt Road heading towards Triana? A few years ago I passed through there once after a days of heavy rain and the water was high enough that if a car went off the road, the occupants could possibly drown or be trapped in their car. I cringe to think of school buses traveling on that part of the road. I typically go down Wall Triana to head out that way. I passed through that stretch of Zierdt recently and its relatively the same.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by raindrop423

Is anyone else terrified of the drop offs on Zierdt Road heading towards Triana? A few years ago I passed through there once after a days of heavy rain and the water was high enough that if a car went off the road, the occupants could possibly drown or be trapped in their car. I cringe to think of school buses traveling on that part of the road. I typically go down Wall Triana to head out that way. I passed through that stretch of Zierdt recently and its relatively the same.

I've only been south of Martin Rd on Zierdt a couple of times, but yes, there are some swampy areas prone to flooding. And there are also a LOT of new houses there. Agree that something needs to be done if they're going to allow housing.

[David1502]

Originally Posted by raindrop423

Is anyone else terrified of the drop offs on Zierdt Road heading towards Triana? A few years ago I passed through there once after a days of heavy rain and the water was high enough that if a car went off the road, the occupants could possibly drown or be trapped in their car. I cringe to think of school buses traveling on that part of the road. I typically go down Wall Triana to head out that way. I passed through that stretch of Zierdt recently and its relatively the same.

The swampy areas you are probably referring to are in the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and as a result, it will be almost impossible to do any type of road improvement to that stretch of the road because of environmental concerns.

In 1938, when Wheeler was created, no one would have ever dreamed that there would be subdivisions right next door to it with thousands of cars driving down Zierdt Rd. That area is very unique because I bet there are few National Wildlife Refuge's in the country which have so much residential development adjacent to them. Anyway, I think the only way you can deal with the safety hazard is to use Wall Triana Highway on days of heavy rain like you are doing now.

BTW: Check out the Wikipedia article on Wheeler - there is a large amount of land in it over a very large geographical area of North Alabama.

[DanBev]

Originally Posted by raindrop423

Is anyone else terrified of the drop offs on Zierdt Road heading towards Triana? A few years ago I passed through there once after a days of heavy rain and the water was high enough that if a car went off the road, the occupants could possibly drown or be trapped in their car. I cringe to think of school buses traveling on that part of the road. I typically go down Wall Triana to head out that way. I passed through that stretch of Zierdt recently and its relatively the same.

Take a look at Connecticut,out of site on vehicle accidents and gun shootings,road rage,last night 105 MPH speeder and so.
on,also road rage and red lights
Like a Vermonter said who has to comute said does ct have state police for crazy drivers?

[Rick In Madison]

Isn't the majority of the land/wetlands east of Zierdt part of RSA? If so then that will be the areas saving grace.

[David1502]

Originally Posted by Rick In Madison

Isn't the majority of the land/wetlands east of Zierdt part of RSA? If so then that will be the areas saving grace.

No, it's not a part of RSA. Check out the Wheeler website: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/wheeler and scroll towards the bottom of the page where you will see a map - Zoom in and you can see that the Wheeler land begins just south of Barren Fork Rd. where it's on both sides of the road. It picks back up just south of the Legacy Cove neighborhood and is on both sides of the road down to Beadle Lane where it continues only on the east side down to around Harold Murphy Dr. in Triana.

The Wheeler land extends into a large portion of RSA.

Bottom line: Any hope of widening, and/or improving Zierdt Rd. south of Martin Rd. are highly unlikely because it will require approval from two federal government agencies. I would say getting environmental approval for working on the section through Wheeler would be tougher than getting approval from the Base Commander at RSA. We saw how long it took to get approval to build the Town Madsion Blvd. interchange which isn't anywhere near a Wildlife Refuge and wasn't taking any land from the U.S. Army.

Almost 70 years ago when Wheeler was established, they had no idea that the sleepy cotton town of Huntsville would grow on the other side of RSA - If they had, they would have bought more land for the Wildlife Refuge to protect it.

[harry chickpea]

The determining factors, aside from the above, would include how much of an easement exists for the right of way. While widening beyond that isn't likely, it is entirely possible to build up the edge and put in guardrails.

[RocketDawg]

Maybe some guard rails might be helpful in the wet areas if the road can't be upgraded. I don't go south of Martin Rd much, just a couple of times ever, but there are a lot of houses there already, and 200 new houses were permitted for Triana in 2023. Not sure how much territory Triana covers - might just be the town, or that section of the county.