MDOT Plans Projects for 2010 and Beyond

This 343-page book has all of MDOT's scheduled road projects for the next four years.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation plans to spend over a billion dollars of federal, state and local funds next year to upgrade and maintain 11,000 miles of roads and bridges. MPB’s Cari Gervin has more.

Between routine road maintenance, bridge replacements and massive new road projects, MDOT State Planning Engineer Jeff Pierce has his work cut out for him.

“Bridge Replacement is $44 million, the Transportation Enhancement is $9 million, uh, ITS is 3.5 million, Operation Maintenance is $73 million. Plus there's …”

Those numbers Pierce mentions are only a fraction of the funds MDOT has budgeted for the 2010 Fiscal Year – almost $1.2 billion in total. The agency is starting a massive overhaul of State Highway 15, which runs from Biloxi to the Tennessee state line in Tippah County. Then there’s the plan to build an entirely new route for U.S. Highway 49.

“We’re doing environmental studies for U.S. 49, from Jackson to the Coast. And there will be a toll aspect to that, to possibly tolling that road down to the Coast, if it’s financially feasible. Don’t know it will be or not – that’s why we’re doing the studies.”

And Pierce is concerned about finances. He was in Oxford Monday for one of several meetings MDOT is hosting across the state to inform the public of the agency’s projects over the next four years. But with the state’s tax revenues continuing to drop, budget cuts could be likely for MDOT, which means some projects will be dropped.

And the public will have a say in which projects get put on hold. That’s why Ed Sharpe stopped by the meeting.

“I wanted to find out about the developments in the highway – what will happen and when will happen.”

MDOT will hold additional meetings about its statewide plans next week in Hattiesburg and Gulfport. For MPB News, I’m Cari Gervin in Oxford.