OKTIBBEHA COUNTY – Residents could see significant road safety improvements in the coming years as Oktibbeha County embarks on a federally funded road safety study aimed at preventing future crashes.
The study, part of the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s Local Road Safety Program, will involve MDOT engineering consultants working alongside Pritchard Engineering and Dungan Engineering to analyze crash data and road attributes, like traffic volume and lane width, to identify areas most in need of increased safety measures.
District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer said the study, in addition to improving safety, will also make the county eligible for federal grant opportunities to fund the road work.
“It opens up other avenues for us to get resources … and we’ll be able to share those resources with our constituents, and they’ll … have safer highways … and people will have a better experience as they’re out and about,” Trainer told The Dispatch on Tuesday. “… It’s just another way to make it safer.
“… The possibilities will be unlimited,” he added. “There’s going to be so much good stuff that can come out of it when we get it. We just got to put it in place.”
The board of supervisors unanimously tasked Pritchard Engineering owner Clyde Pritchard to move forward with the project alongside MDOT during its regular meeting last week at the circuit court building.
During the meeting, Pritchard explained that after a comprehensive analysis of the county’s intersections and roadways, MDOT will recommend any number of safety measures for areas with the greatest risk of future crashes.
“That could be modifying intersections, that could be signage, that could be a countywide striping project,” Pritchard told the board. “It would be at their discretion to say, ‘Here’s where we think you need to go first, and here’s areas we think you need to work next.’”
MDOT Public Information Officer David Kenney told The Dispatch the study may include a public engagement component, potentially involving a community survey that would allow residents to identify areas of concern.
Supervisors during the meeting noted some of their biggest concerns, citing excessive speeding in District 1 and pedestrian safety along roadways in District 5.
Ultimately, however, the study’s recommendations will be based on MDOT’s objective assessment.
“We can offer input, but the beauty of it really is to get a third party to come in and do an assessment to say, ‘Here’s what the crash data shows, here’s what we’re seeing and here’s where we think we need to do some improvement,’” Pritchard told the board.
Safe streets around the region
The study could begin in the coming months, Kenney said, and county officials hope to have it completed by mid-2027 to qualify for the next round of Safe Streets for All grants, administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation for projects aimed at preventing roadway fatalities and serious crashes.
Those grants require a completed safety study before a municipality or county can apply, a step both Starkville and Columbus have already taken.
Starkville completed its own federally-funded road safety study through the Safe Streets for All program in 2024 and quickly secured an $8 million grant to construct a roundabout and adjoining multi-use pedestrian and bicycle path at the intersection of Highway 12 and Garrard Road.
Chris Williams, Starkville’s associate city engineer, said the study identified potential safety concerns along the entire Highway 12 corridor. The city plans to address those concerns following the roundabout project through new traffic signals with upgraded technology.
“We’re taking lessons learned from (the study), and we’re folding pieces of that in all our projects,” he said. “It’s really helped change the way that we’re looking at projects and making sure that safety is a huge part of the design as we go.”
In Columbus, City Engineer Kevin Stafford said the crash data compiled through the safety study has been especially valuable when applying for grants. Having an objective list of prioritized safety needs has also been beneficial, he said.
“Now we can … say, ‘Hey, look, we’ve analyzed it, we know we have issues, we know that this is the highest density of our issues, so we know that the money for us needs to go here,’” Stafford told The Dispatch on Tuesday. “I think that’s what it helped do. … It gave true empirical data that you can apply.”
Temporary safety measures were installed in March along Main Street between Fourth and Seventh streets after a 2017 MDOT safety study prescribed the measures, a finding that was reaffirmed once more as a hot spot for crashes following the Safe Streets for All safety study three years later. The city is now pursuing grant opportunities to make those changes permanent.
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