U.S. Highway 90 - Alabama
Broad Street - Mobile
Once the roadway for five different U.S. routes and two U.S. Truck routes, the highway now carries U.S. 90, 98, and Truck U.S. 98. The roadway is part of the downtown area Hank Aaron Loop, named after the Major League Baseball homerun king and Mobile Native. The road is orientated in a north-south fashion between Interstate 10 and Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, providing downtown traffic with exits to the city. Bishop State Community College is situated along the northern part of the street, where Broad Street carries six lanes on the western fringes of the central business district. South of U.S. 90/98/Government Street, Broad Street leaves downtown and passes through older residential areas that are in an unfortunate state of decline.
Battleship Parkway - Mobile Bay
Named because of the presence of the USS Alabama, situated at Battleship Park on the northwest shore of Mobile Bay, this four-lane parkway parallels Interstate 10 between downtown Mobile at the Bankhead Tunnel and U.S. 31 at Spanish Fort. The four-lane highway offers a slower relaxed pace compared to the blur of the Interstate 10 Bayway. Seafood restaurants, boating facilities, and many places to pull over
to fish are located along the eight-mile long roadway.
It should be stated that the four-lane parkway was only expanded to its current dimensions in the mid 1990s. Beforehand, the roadway was in failing shape, with two of its four lanes closed due to structural deficiencies associated with each waterway crossing along the eight mile path. Rebuilding of those bridges and opening of the parkway as a four-lane highway were sought for the expanding Eastern Shore areas of Baldwin County and for extra capacity in a hurricane evacuation situation. Since 1996, when the highway was under construction, the area has been buffeted by Hurricane Danny (which dropped over 40 inches of rain over Mobile County) in 1997 and Hurricane George in 1998. Smaller hurricanes such as Earl in 1998 have also skirted the area.
On the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay at the civil war famous town of Spanish Fort, U.S. 90 parts with U.S. 98, and turns eastward. The highway resumes its sleepy fashion east of the Daphne and Malbis area, as it serves local traffic for small towns such as Robertsdale, Elsanor, and Seminole before sneaking into Florida at the Perdido River.
U.S. 90 Highway Guides
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