This has been changed. The speed limit through the Hospital Zone is now 45mph. Also, when you leave Lawrenceburg going South, the road no longer widens. Recently Highway 43 (aka South Locust Ave) has been widened to accommodate a turn lane all the way through town. Actually, all the way through Lawrenceburg to the Alabama state line. That brings us to another "speed trap." The next little town South of Lawrenceburg is Leoma. The speed limit through Leoma is 45mph. Once you are through that, it suddenly changes to 60 mph, but changes back to 45 as you enter Loretto City Limits ( I think its a total of about 2, maybe 3 miles). After passing through Loretto you get to go 55 for a VERY SHORT stretch until you reach the St. Joseph City Limits.... and we're back to 45 mph. It is very strange. I can remember when I was a kid and learning to drive you could go 55 from the Lawrenceburg City Limits to the Loretto City Limits and then again from Loretto to the Alabama state line. Back then it was all two-lane road. Now that we have 4 lanes of traffic AND a turn lane the speed limits change faster than the wind changes direction. In summary, if you can avoid going through Lawrence County (Summertown, Ethridge, Lawrenceburg, Leoma, Loretto, and St. Joseph), avoid it at all costs. Either that or be sure to diligently look for speed limit signs and use your cruise control.

You must remember that the State of Tennessee has a law in effect (stupid as it is written with no limitations to it) : any state highway that has four or more lanes and is curbed must have a maximun speed limit of 45 miles per hour. With any upgrades to highways in the past 4 or 5 years this goes into effect and a 2 lane road that was curvy with limited sight was 55 miles per hour is now 45 mph. Kind of stupid in sereral cases.