STARKVILLE — The future of the Highway 182 redesign may hinge on Starkville receiving a new batch of federal grant funds to make the project whole.
Aldermen on Tuesday voted unanimously to apply for a Rebuilding Am
erican Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant, described as a discretionary grant program for investments in surface transportation infrastructure that will have a significant local or regional impact. The city is seeking up to $19 million, but it is unknown whether it will receive any of the requested funds.
“It is a no-match grant,” Mayor Lynn Spruill told the board. “So there is a ‘no harm, no foul’ to us at this point if we were to receive it.”
Spruill told The Dispatch the grants will be distributed in late June, which she predicts is the same time that the city will need to decide if it can hold on to its other chunk of federal funds for the project from a Better Utilizing Investments to Development (BUILD) grant. The terms of that grant, worth $12.6 million, requires the project be substantially completed by June 2025 and fully completed by the end of 2026.
The Highway 182 improvements would go from North Long Street to Old West Point Road, reducing Highway 182 to two lanes divided by landscaped medians and making the area more pedestrian-friendly and wheelchair-accessible. Other upgrades would include beautification and drainage.
Delays and rising costs have thrown a wrench in the intended timeline, but Spruill sees nothing to lose in applying for the RAISE grant.
“Just like the BUILD grant (application), we don’t know if we will get it,” Spruill told the board. “But I think it is certainly worth the effort to go out there and see.”
She also told the board she has secured letters of support ranging from local business owners to Gov. Tate Reeves, and intends to take a personal trip to Washington, D.C. in early June to lobby for the grant and any other assistance she can secure.
Clock ticking on BUILD
If the original plan had panned out, the BUILD grant, plus a required 20% match from the city, would have covered the project’s initial cost of around $15 million.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in serious delays, and was followed by supply-chain issues and ballooning costs. Last year, the project’s estimated cost reached an estimated $41 million.
The city has about $25 million on hand for the project. That includes the BUILD grant, the city’s required match, and $10.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and state match devoted to the project’s water, sewage and drainage improvements.
No matter what happens with the rest of the project, Spruill said the matched ARPA funds would complete water and drainage upgrades on Highway 182, from Henderson to Jackson streets.
Spruill said that getting a deadline extension for BUILD is likely out of the city’s control and is dependent on legislative action. The city has also requested a scope change to reduce the project’s size, but it is unknown if that will be successful, she said.
The RAISE grant, if received in full, could bridge the funding gap and then some, but Spruill said her interpretation of the RAISE grant is that it is a supplement to BUILD, and that if the city loses BUILD, it doesn’t get RAISE.
“If there’s a way to make (RAISE) serve as a standalone, I’m perfectly willing to use it for that as well,” she said.
Spruill said she couldn’t put a number on the city’s chance of successfully getting RAISE grant funds.
“The best I’ve got right now is to hope that those who put the RAISE grant opportunity together were truly serious in helping those of us who have grants (for projects) that we simply cannot meet the requirements,” she said.
Project adjustments
The city has taken a number of steps to reduce the project’s swelled price tag, including rejecting a construction bid in August that, along with engineering, material and contingency costs, drove the project to more than $41 million – more than 2.5 times the $16 million the city originally expected when it accepted the BUILD grant in 2019.
The most significant was taking ownership of a stretch of Highway 182 from Old West Point Road to Roosevelt Taylor Sr. Street.
State highway regulations dictate that underground utility infrastructure lay along rights-of-way, restricting the amount of space that can be used for installations.
City Engineer Cody Burnett told The Dispatch that following the rejection of bids, the bidders were “univocal” that due to state highway restrictions, there was not enough space to construct the project, resulting in significantly increased bid costs.
As a city road, utility infrastructure can be installed underneath the road, providing more space to work with and reducing costs.
Burnett said the new redesign incorporates these adjustments.
“Our thoughts are that the redesign should help lower construction costs so that hopefully the next rebid effort will result in lower bids,” he said.
He said both the Mississippi Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration must review the redesign before the city can advertise for new bids. Burnett said he hopes to go out for bid next month.
Kevin Edwards is news editor and reports on Starkville and Oktibbeha County government.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 38 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.