Ten years ago, momentum seemed to favor building a Highway 45 bypass west of Columbus.
Studies funded with federal dollars produced a route, along with substantial design work for the project, pointed to construction completion by about 2020.
But for most of the last decade, those plans have been shelved, said Kevin Stafford, vice president and North Mississippi manager for the Neel-Schaffer engineering firm.
So what happened? And will there ever be a Highway 45 bypass?
Why was a bypass even being considered?
A Mississippi Department of Transportation study from 2001 showed traffic along Highway 45 in Columbus averaging more than 27,000 vehicles per day, which Stafford said is considered “capacity” for that corridor. Worse, the study projected that number would increase to as much as 42,000 by 2021, underscoring a need for an alternate route to alleviate congestion.
Between 2004 and 2007, the project received almost $8 million in federal funds for feasibility and environmental studies. MDOT hosted a public hearing in 2010, then determined a route – eight miles of four-lane highway between the U.S. 82/Main Street at Waters Truck and Tractor and the north gate of Columbus Air Force Base.
Neel-Schaffer followed with preliminary design plans that identified the road’s footprint, the number, locations and parameters of needed bridges, and exactly how much right-of-way MDOT would need to purchase, Stafford said.
“That’s where we stopped,” he said.
Why did it stop?
Two reasons: cost and need.
Once Neel-Schaffer completed the preliminary design, between $1 million and $2 million remained in appropriations earmarked for the project, Stafford said. That was enough to buy some of the needed right-of-way, but without enough on hand to purchase it all, MDOT held off.
Also, while the project’s estimated price tag in 2010 was around $100 million, Stafford said that figure grew to $220 million or so. The money simply wasn’t available.
And as time went on, traffic estimates from the 2001 study simply didn’t pan out. In fact, Stafford said the average daily traffic count has remained steady, or even declined, since, ranging between 23,000 and 27,000 in front of the old KMart from 2012 to 2021.
With the project essentially dead, Stafford said MDOT redirected its leftover earmarks to support the roundabout construction on Military Road, as well as the double right turn and signal upgrade at 18th Avenue North and U.S. 82 near Chick-fil-A.
Could a bypass still happen?
Stafford said the designs are still viable, with a few tweaks.
“You would have to redo a lot of your environmental evaluations because your regulations around environmental protections have changed a little bit,” he said.
Right-of-way would also need to be appraised.
But first, traffic volumes would have to increase beyond capacity on Highway 45 to the point where the road’s service level would classify as “failing.” Today, Stafford said, that isn’t the case.
Even if it was, there’s one other, not so small, issue.
“If the funding’s not there, there’s no sense in restarting,” Stafford said.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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