Lowndes County, Oktibbeha County and Starkville have landed more than $4.6 million combined in state funding for eight bridge repair projects through the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s Emergency Road and Bridge repair program.
The counties and city requested funding from the competitive grant program, for which the Legislature designated $250 million, late last year. On Tuesday, the Legislature authorized MDOT to disperse the money to local governments.
Lowndes County received $342,000 for a project on East Lindsey Ferry Road — one of three projects it submitted requests for funding.
Lowndes Board of Supervisors President Harry Sanders said it was a “good deal” that the county got state funding for East Lindsey Ferry Road.
However, Sanders said he didn’t agree with MDOT’s prioritization of the project it awarded. He said Wolfe Road, which was an estimated $900,000 project, is a higher priority for the county.
“We have a greater need on Wolfe Road and it sees more traffic,” Sanders said. “West Lindsey has very little traffic. On the scope of everything, we got shorted a little bit on the money.”
Sanders also took issue with money allocated to other areas of the state.
Forrest County, for example, received about $16 million for projects, including $15.2 million for repairs on East Hardy Street.
“We’re one of the largest counties with some of the most roads and it seems like we got short-changed,” Sanders said. “But I am pleased with what we got. You can’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Mike Tagert, MDOT commissioner for Mississippi’s Northern District, said projects were selected based on criteria set by the Legislature, cities and counties that emphasized bridges over road repairs.
“We had a total of 691 projects submitted from every county,” Tagert said. “While we were not able to fund all of those, the total estimate was just over $1 billion in requests. We were able to fund 25 percent of those requests, from a monetary perspective. They were all valuable projects — we didn’t see any projects that weren’t important.”
Tagert, of Starkville, said several factors, from how soon the project may have been able to go to construction to the tight funding may have been what led to East Lindsey Ferry’s selection over Wolfe Road.
“It may have been a matter of funding,” he said. “It could have been on that cutting edge and $900,000 is a heck of a lot more than $340,000.”
Oktibbeha County
Oktibbeha County received funding for five of 10 requested projects. Starkville got money for two of its three requested projects.
MDOT allocated $440,197 for a bridge on Old West Point Road; $1.07 million for two bridges on Sun Creek Road; $551,447 for a bridge on Longview-Adaton Road; and $448,807 for a bridge on Silver Ridge Road.
County Engineer Clyde Pritchard said the 10 bridges total to about $11 million for needed repairs.
Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors President Orlando Trainer said the money will help chip away at the county’s problems. He added that Oktibbeha County will likely have to find a way to fund the other bridge projects in the future.
“We’re thankful that we were able to get those bridges funded,” Trainer said. “We had an $11 million problem and we got $2 million. So we’re thankful for that. But at the same time, we’re hoping we don’t have any issues with those other bridges that would be a hazard to the traveling public and cause us to have to close them. But we’re ahead of the game.”
Starkville received $1.34 million for a bridge on Old West Point Road near the intersection with Garrard Road and $514,998 for a bridge that crosses Hollis Creek on the east side of Starkville High School’s campus.
“Those two have the most traffic of the three we applied for,” City Engineer Edward Kemp said. “We’re incredibly grateful that not only did we have the opportunity to apply for these funds but also that we were awarded some of them. I think this will make a great impact on our community from a safety standpoint and will improve some very old, antiquated infrastructure that’s in dire need of replacement.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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