University Drive is a major east–west thoroughfare in

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in t ...

, following

US Route 72 U.S. Route 72 (US 72) is an east–west United States highway that travels for from southwestern Tennessee, throughout North Mississippi, North Alabama, and southeastern Tennessee. The highway's western terminus is in Memphis, Tennessee and ...

into the city from the west. The highway carries on average approximately 56,000 vehicles a day at .

Route Description

From the west, US 72 enters Madison County inside the city limits of Huntsville and runs east eventually running through the north tip of the city of

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

, where it splits Huntsville and Madison's city limits, with Huntsville to the north, Madison to the south. At Jeff Road, the four lane US 72 takes on the name of University Drive and passes to the south of Huntsville Memorial Gardens and over Indian Creek, where it meets Providence Main Street, where it widens to seven lanes. Continuing east, University Drive passes through multiple shopping centers and car dealerships. University Drive meets Research Park Blvd / Alabama 255 with a six-ramp partial cloverleaf and passes just to the north of MidCity Huntsville, formerly

Madison Square Mall Madison Square Mall was a shopping mall in Huntsville, Alabama, United States. The largest in the city, it encompassed over . It was also the oldest extant enclosed shopping mall (after the Heart of Huntsville Mall closed) in the city until its ...

. University Drive then passes to the south of Huntsville West Shopping Center. An overpass over Sparkman Drive with on- and off-ramps provides access to the

University of Alabama in Huntsville The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is a public research university in Huntsville, Alabama. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and comprises nine colleges: arts, humanities & social science ...

. Following the interchange, the road runs under a pedestrian and bicycle bridge and then meets Alabama 53 / Jordan Lane. University Drive eventually connects to Memorial Parkway, where US-72 splits off and heads north with US 231/431. Going through the intersection, University Drive narrows to five lanes and intersects Church Street, where it becomes Pratt Ave. Pratt Ave continues east, directly connecting to Five Points and then runs up

Monte Sano Mountain Monte Sano Mountain is a mountain located in Huntsville, Alabama. The name ''Monte Sano'' is Spanish for "Mountain of health". This name comes from the fact that curative health resorts used to be located on the mountain to take advantage of th ...

Major intersections

Retail

University Drive is a major commercial thoroughfare through west Huntsville that includes a number of shopping centers, hotels, fast food locations, and other various businesses including two movie theaters, Carmike Huntsville 10 and Madison Square 12. Shopping Centers: *

Midcity MidCity is a shopping centre in the Sydney central business district. It is located on Pitt Street Mall, adjacent to Westfield Sydney, The Strand Arcade and is diagonally opposite Glasshouse. MidCity has over 24 stores across Fashion, Beauty, Fi ...

*The Fountain * Northwood Plaza Shopping Center * Westside Center Major retail stores include: *

Trader Joe's Trader Joe's is an American chain of grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia, California. The chain has over 569 stores across the United States. The first Trader Joe's store was opened in 1967 by founder Joe Coulombe in Pasadena, California ...

Books-a-Million Books-A-Million, Inc., also known as BAM!, is a bookstore chain in the United States, operating 260 stores in 32 states. Stores range in size from 4,000 to 30,000 square feet and sell books, magazines, manga, collectibles, toys, technology, ...

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

Sam's Club Sam's West, Inc. (doing business as Sam's Club) is an American chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Walmart Inc., founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton as Sam’s Wholesale Club. , Sam's Cl ...

* Super Target *

Walmart Supercenter Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

Transportation

Access to shuttle buses provided by the city of Huntsville are available along University Drive.{{Cite web , url=http://www.huntsvilleal.gov/PublicTran/public_trans.php , title=City of Huntsville Public Transit , access-date=January 10, 2012 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111227074654/http://www.huntsvilleal.gov/PublicTran/public_trans.php , archive-date=December 27, 2011 , url-status=dead

References

Streets in Alabama Roads in Alabama Transportation in Huntsville, Alabama U.S. Route 72

Route Description

Major intersections

Retail

Transportation

See also

References