Governor's $1.3M Grant Finishes Work on New Redstone Gate

HUNTSVILLE, AL | AUGUST 16, 2017 – Further enhancing Redstone Gateway, a business park development by Corporate Office Property Trust and Jim Wilson & Associates (JWA) located at the intersection of I-565 and Rideout Road at the Redstone Arsenal entrance, is the long awaited Gate 9 relocation. The official opening was celebrated with the traditional ribbon cutting event with executives Jim Wilson III from JWA and Steve Budorick, CEO of Corporate Office Property Trust, participating and joining Governor Kay Ivey and other key people at the event.

Gov. Kay Ivey officially opened a new $13 million main gate to Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal today, and she brought a $1.3 million state check to help pay for it.

Ivey awarded a state grant to the Redstone project because of the base’s $100 million annual economic impact on Alabama and the daily traffic congestion backing up from the gate to Interstate 565.

“Over 40,000 folks enter Gate 9 every day and, before its relocation, it was a huge traffic congestion, as you know,” Ivey said. “It’s been going on for some time, and it was just an impediment to good progress.”

State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) said the project started in 2004 and required a new state law allowing the state to spend money on federal property.

“The announcement today is a significant one,” Orr told the governor, adding, “I would like to put a bug in your ear about I-565 needing expanded.”

Lt. Gen. Edward Daly, the new deputy commander of the base, said the gate was designed with a retro look featuring a silver front and red letters reminiscent of the arsenal’s main gate on Martin Road 50 years ago.

The new gate is “loaded with technological advantages to keep the workforce safe,” Daley said, referring to the more than 70 federal organizations and agencies operating on the facility today. The arsenal “is a special place with global reach and real world impact,” Daly said.

Ivey toured the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology before going to the Arsenal and was scheduled to meet with business and government leaders on the area’s needs.

It’s the seventh such “listening” meeting Ivey has had since becoming governor, and she said every one of them has listed infrastructure improvements as the top need.