Mississippi

[brownpelican]

Found this article about the Port of Gulfport connector (what some people, including Alex, call "I-310") from last month.  In short, MDOT has spent over $150 million on a route that the courts have ruled they need to start over on.  And MDOT doesn't have any funding to restart the project.

And to think we'd believe that they'd be well on their way to finishing the road.

You can even see on Google Maps where MDOT cleared the land on the route.

[froggie]

Yep...that's as far as they got before the lawsuit halted them.

[lordsutch]

MDOT's own version of the Route 460 debacle in Virginia.

That said the folks who wanted an at-grade project (presumably the $14m project) were crazy or just self-serving. Unless you grade separate the whole corridor in an urbanized area, it'll get overrun with signals and development just like US 49 to the east did, defeating the entire point.

[The Ghostbuster]

Thanks for the update, even though it took 8 months. After reading the article, it looks like the road won't be built anytime soon, if ever.

[froggie]

That said the folks who wanted an at-grade project (presumably the $14m project) were crazy or just self-serving. Unless you grade separate the whole corridor in an urbanized area, it'll get overrun with signals and development just like US 49 to the east did, defeating the entire point.

Not necessarily.  MDOT is aware of how to do access management on major arterials (some of the new-alignment 4-lane segments have it, such as US 45 south of Meridian to past Quitman) and it's likely any such connector that remained under MDOT jurisdiction would have had limited intersections and no new private access points.

US 49's problem, besides being a 50-year-old 4-lane now, is that as a pre-existing road, access control was non-existant.  And much of the development along 49 happened before MDOT came to learn about access management.

[lordsutch]

That said the folks who wanted an at-grade project (presumably the $14m project) were crazy or just self-serving. Unless you grade separate the whole corridor in an urbanized area, it'll get overrun with signals and development just like US 49 to the east did, defeating the entire point.

Not necessarily.  MDOT is aware of how to do access management on major arterials (some of the new-alignment 4-lane segments have it, such as US 45 south of Meridian to past Quitman) and it's likely any such connector that remained under MDOT jurisdiction would have had limited intersections and no new private access points.

The limited private access points might be an improvement over US 49, but you'd still have signalized intersections every few blocks, and more importantly pressure from local government and developers to add more signalized intersections and relax the private access controls so they can develop the adjacent property.

[froggie]

Depends on if it remains a state highway or not.  MDOT is pretty adamant about not allowing the latter on segments designated limited-access.

Meanwhile, even a signalized at-grade would be a useful alternative to US 49, especially for the port traffic.

[Grzrd]

I posted this in the I-69 in MS thread because of the impact it has on I-69 development, but I thought it would be useful to post it here, also. This Oct. 31 article reports that Transportation Commissioner Mike Tagert says that all new capacity projects will end in 2018 unless new money is provided.

[Grzrd]

The Final 2017-20 Statewide Transportation Plan has been posted on the MDOT website.

[mwb1848]

I remain consistently amazed at how slowly highway projects move in Mississippi.

I remember as a kid growing up in Pascagoula reading about plans to add an interchange at US 90 and Mississippi 63. It was finally completed a couple of years ago. I think I-310 has been talked about forever. And then you have the incredibly provincial, meandering discussions about adding interchanges to proposed freeways in the Memphis suburbs. 

Contrast all of that with how quickly projects advance in Texas, where I've made my home for the last 11 years.

Entire freeway projects in Texas get planned, funded, constructed, opened, and expanded in the time that it takes MDOT to figure out where it wants to put an interchange.

[US71]

I remain consistently amazed at how slowly highway projects move in Mississippi.

I remember as a kid growing up in Pascagoula reading about plans to add an interchange at US 90 and Mississippi 63. It was finally completed a couple of years ago. I think I-310 has been talked about forever. And then you have the incredibly provincial, meandering discussions about adding interchanges to proposed freeways in the Memphis suburbs. 

Contrast all of that with how quickly projects advance in Texas, where I've made my home for the last 11 years.

Entire freeway projects in Texas get planned, funded, constructed, opened, and expanded in the time that it takes MDOT to figure out where it wants to put an interchange.

Texas generally has more money.

[berberry]

The Final 2017-20 Statewide Transportation Plan has been posted on the MDOT website.

The plans for Jackson are interesting. I particularly like the idea of extending both ends of four-laned Pearson Road, south to US 49 and north to Lakeland Drive at what looks to be somewhere around Treetops Blvd. It seems to me that once that's done, another extension might be a really great idea: from US 49 to I-55 at Byram. This would give south-bound MS 25 traffic a great alternative to the Jackson freeways if their destination is anywhere south of the city, and of course the opposite option for northbound I-55 traffic bound for MSU, for example. Since the plans also show a widening of US 49 down to Florence, maybe MDOT would opt for an interchange at Pearson and 49.

Another item I wish they'd look at, although it would cost a fortune, I'm sure: widening and elevating most of I-20 from Raymond Road to Clinton.

It all seems so pie-in-the-sky under the present funding situation, but something's bound to change sooner or later, I think.

[froggie]

Elevating 20 would be overkill.  Nevermind that there's nothing in the STIP to address the REAL elephant in Jackson's room:  the Waterworks Curve on I-55.

[mwb1848]

This is the long way to solve the Waterworks Curve Problem: Move I-55 to I-220 and replace the section of I-55 between Pascagoula Street and Woodrow Wilson or Lakeland with an at-grade urban boulevard which gives Jackson the opportunity to reconnect with its riverfront and – by the way – eliminates the Waterworks Curve.

The remaining section of I-55 north of Downtown to the current I-55/I-220 interchange remains a local traffic freeway and is designated I-155.

#DontHateMe

[lordsutch]

I don't think Jackson was ever really "connected" with its riverfront; that whole area along the Pearl River is basically a floodplain. There's a reason all the government buildings, even the oldest ones, are on the bluffs a mile from the river.

The real issue with Waterworks Curve is that the adjoining neighborhood is becoming very gentrified, so straightening the thing out would be politically hard unless they literally moved the waterworks. Personally I don't think it's that bad - it's nothing like the old Laurel curve, or even some of the curves on I-22 through New Albany.

[froggie]

New Albany's issue wasn't curbs...it was a wicked narrow median.  But the Laurel curves are an appropriate comparison.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

I don't think Jackson was ever really "connected" with its riverfront; that whole area along the Pearl River is basically a floodplain. There's a reason all the government buildings, even the oldest ones, are on the bluffs a mile from the river.

The real issue with Waterworks Curve is that the adjoining neighborhood is becoming very gentrified, so straightening the thing out would be politically hard unless they literally moved the waterworks. Personally I don't think it's that bad - it's nothing like the old Laurel curve, or even some of the curves on I-22 through New Albany.

I'll shrink the "problem area" even more, go redo the Woodrow Wilson interchange. That left hand exit (on I-55 NB) is what I disliked the most about that section around Jackson.

[lordsutch]

New Albany's issue wasn't curbs...it was a wicked narrow median.  But the Laurel curves are an appropriate comparison.

There's still a pretty awkward curve on I-22 between MS 15 and Central Avenue, combined with a bad merge westbound (eastbound was fixed when they fixed the median). It doesn't look so bad on a map or even an aerial, but it definitely has a 1960s freeway feel to it, a bit like the MS 7 Oxford bypass between MS 314/334 and Sisk Avenue does.

Realistically I don't know what you can do to fix Woodrow Wilson without screwing up the northbound I-55 alignment, absent wiping out the eastern 1/4 of Belhaven. About the only thing you could do to help with capacity is to get the traffic through Waterworks that is destined for MS 25 across the Pearl River somewhere else by reviving the Airport Parkway concept.

[golden eagle]

The Final 2017-20 Statewide Transportation Plan has been posted on the MDOT website.

The plans for Jackson are interesting. I particularly like the idea of extending both ends of four-laned Pearson Road, south to US 49 and north to Lakeland Drive at what looks to be somewhere around Treetops Blvd. It seems to me that once that's done, another extension might be a really great idea: from US 49 to I-55 at Byram. This would give south-bound MS 25 traffic a great alternative to the Jackson freeways if their destination is anywhere south of the city, and of course the opposite option for northbound I-55 traffic bound for MSU, for example. Since the plans also show a widening of US 49 down to Florence, maybe MDOT would opt for an interchange at Pearson and 49.

What's going on with this project? I remember dirt work was being done, but grass has grown over dirt, almost as if nothing ever happened.

[golden eagle]

Downtown Philadelphia bypass cancelled:

http://msbusiness.com/2017/08/mississippi-highway-bypass-project-canned-amid-tight-budget/

[brownpelican]

Several curves (some of them pretty sharp) are in the process of being straightened out on MS 43 between MS 26 in Crossroads and Walkiah Bluff Road/Burnt Bridge Road just west of Picayune.

[froggie]

They were talking about that project when I left Picayune/Stennis.  And that was 9 years ago.

They were also talking about widening US 11 and replacing the Hobolochitto Creek bridge from just north of downtown Picayune to the Hide-a-Way Lake turnoff, especially after Katrina hit and pushed a lot of people into the county...but that hasn't exactly happened either.

[lordsutch]

I spotted about the sleaziest example of traffic enforcement I've ever seen yesterday in Byhalia. City cop was sitting on MS 178 a few hundred feet past the DeSoto/Marshall county line, which is also the Byhalia city limit. MS 178 is 55 mph west of the county line but drops to 45 at the county line/city limit.

The sleazy part: the 45 mph sign westbound was covered up with some sort of black canvas bag. Apparently it's been that way for years. Thankfully I was going west instead of east...

[rel4]

I spotted about the sleaziest example of traffic enforcement I've ever seen yesterday in Byhalia. City cop was sitting on MS 178 a few hundred feet past the DeSoto/Marshall county line, which is also the Byhalia city limit. MS 178 is 55 mph west of the county line but drops to 45 at the county line/city limit.

The sleazy part: the 45 mph sign westbound was covered up with some sort of black canvas bag. Apparently it's been that way for years. Thankfully I was going west instead of east...

It looks like the speed limit 45 sign was covered because the highway is entering the work zone for I-269 (a long project) where the speed limit would normally drop 10 mph... from 55 to 45 or 45 to 35. The advance construction signage only has advisory plaques for 45 instead of a reduced speed zone. That issue should be brought to MDOT's attention since the speed limit signage falls under their jurisdiction.

[golden eagle]

US 49 work south of Jackson begins:

http://msbusiness.com/2018/03/group-set-start-work-us-49-south-jackson/