For those who had dreams of a non-stop, four-lane interstate ride from Montgomery to an area near the Mississippi state line had a cold dose of reality this week when U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby said any hope of an extension of I-85 through the Black Belt was all but gone.

Well, thanks.

Let’s see here. A project that everyone in the Black Belt region could agree was a good idea, an idea nearly everyone said would bring an economic boom to an area rated as one of the worst economic regions in the country, is now all but dead because it didn’t garner any support outside of the Black Belt region.

Well, thanks.

With that project now all but off the table, maybe we should turn our attention to finally finishing the expansion and improvements of U.S. Highway all the way to the Mississippi state line.

Oh, wait, we need Federal funds to make that happen and it has taken the better part of two generations to get the highway to the state it is now. Only God knows how long it will take to wrap up the final few segments.

Shelby — although not inspiring much confidence in future support from Washington — did offer a comment that may offer a glimmer of hope when he said infrastructure is important to economic development.

If only we could turn those comments into actual investment and that investment into growth and jobs.

Alabama’s Black Belt needs much more than rhetoric. We need action and results.