Mississippi

[pctech]

There is still a concrete section east of Biloxi, it ends at the causeway over the marsh. (milepost high 60's) It's still in good shape. The rest areas there have been refurbished and reopened as well. Here in Louisiana we have closed most of ours.

[brownpelican]

I believe I know the area you're talking about....the Escatawpa basin.

[richllewis]

For those of you who do not know I-20 between Hwy 18 in West part of Jackson and Clinton is two lanes. The road is eroding away at the Mc Raven Rd overpass because of Yazoo Clay and Mdot had to do an emergency contact to do a temporary fix of the roadway. This TV report will give you all the info:

http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/21823480/i-20-repair-is-just-a-temporary-fix 

[pctech]

What is Yazoo clay?

[richllewis]

It is the type of soil that is most common in Mississippi. This type of soil has caused problems in the past on Mississippi's roadways.

[froggie]

Nasty stuff.  Acidic.  Doesn't settle easily (if at all).

[pctech]

Is there an engineering work around for yazoo clay? Here in south Louisiana the soils present road building issues. (of which LADODT seems clueless about dealing with)

[codyg1985]

I wished there were soil borings from the area to look at. I wonder how deep the clay layer goes. I imagine it goes for quite a way.

I suppose one thing you could do is put a lot of base down and spread it out well beyond the footprint of the travel lanes and shoulders to try and distribute the weight of the roadway and the vehicles as much as possible to mitigate settlement. You could also undercut the clay, but it depends on how deep it goes whether that's practical.

I wonder if the recent storms have anything to do with this? Yazoo clay is very plastic and expansive, so maybe the soil absorbed a lot of water.

[codyg1985]

For those that are interested, here is a geotechnical report for the Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium that includes soil boring information and other engineering information about Yazoo Clay. The Yazoo Clay goes very deep, so you can't undercut all of it. As a matter of fact, the more you undercut, the more risk you have of disturbing the unweathered Yazoo clay which could cause it to swell.

[rel4]

For those of you who do not know I-20 between Hwy 18 in West part of Jackson and Clinton is two lanes. The road is eroding away at the Mc Raven Rd overpass because of Yazoo Clay and Mdot had to do an emergency contact to do a temporary fix of the roadway. This TV report will give you all the info:

http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/21823480/i-20-repair-is-just-a-temporary-fix 

I travel this section of I-20 daily.  Yazoo clay is a highly expansive type of clay.  It has a high shrink/swell potential, and it is the prime reason the roads in the region are very lumpy and older buildings have foundation problems.  It is bad soil by any measure.

MDOT brought over the contractor that rebuilt MM 80 to 91 to install the emergency crossover lane and median barriers shown in the TV report.  MM 80 to 91 was dug up 3 to 4 feet deep and reconstructed from scratch over the past 2 years one side at a time.  The I-20 WB on ramp at MS 18 had to be closed because the emergency crossover was built east of the on-ramp, leaving nowhere to merge traffic.

When MDOT repaired the McRaven Rd slide several years ago, they widended the McRaven Rd bridge in the median to allow for the installation of detour lanes for each direction and left the bridge in place for future interstate widening (http://goo.gl/maps/GjD0c).  That decision turned out to be a great decision.  After the emergency crossover lanes to preserve at least one lane of traffic was opened, an emergency contract was let to construct new long-term detour westbound lanes in the median to bypass the failure area and install h-beams past the shoulder to shore the roadway.  The median was excavated several feet to remove all soil; the soil was replaced with crushed concrete (no dirt).  The median bridge will be used as part of the long term detour.  Work has continued 24/7 to beat the 10 day deadline.  As of last night, the striping and long term construction signs were in place, but the new lanes were not open.  I took US 80 this morning, but I presume that the detour lanes opened today or will open tomorrow.  This segment of I-20 is slated to be widened to 6 lanes in the coming years.

[rel4]

I've noticed that the mile markers on I-55 in the Jackson area are now marked every quarter mile. Has this been done on all the interstates in the state?

Not all interstates. I normally drive I-110 at least every other week... which, now that I think of it, I don't think I've ever seen mile markers on I-110. But I drive I-10 occasionally and didn't notice any every 1/4 mile - just the usual one per mile. So it's definitely not a statewide thing. Perhaps in major metropolitan areas (if you can consider Jackson a major metropolitan area) the state is installing them every 1/4 mile.

MDOT has a contract underway to replace most of the interstate signage in Jackson (the I-20/55/220 "loop" except for newer signs at the I-20/55/US 49 Stack interchange and I-220 Exit 3).  As part of the project, they replaced the mile posts with quater-mile posts, replaced a number of old overhead trusses, properly signed US 49 at each exit, and eliminated the US 51 signs off of State Street between I-20 and US 80.

[cjk374]

Why was the US 51 signs removed? Was it truncated somewhere?

[Chris]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1891&dat=19850106&id=trUfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iNcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1319,549485

Interesting 1985 newspaper article about the Yazoo clay.

[golden eagle]

Why was the US 51 signs removed? Was it truncated somewhere?

I could never figure this out. It's as if the highway just disappeared through Jackson, only for it to reappear out of thin air in Ridgeland. For a while, the State Street exit was signed as U.S. 51, but that's disappeared from the overhead signs.

[froggie]

Many years ago (at least 2 decades ago...likely longer), MDOT moved US 51 onto I-55 through Jackson, but never bothered signing it along I-55.  That they continued to sign the "state maintained" part of State St connecting to I-55 South as US 51 further muddied the waters.

[golden eagle]

I think it may've happened in the early 90s. I recall seeing US 51 signs on State Street in the Fondren area (when it was four-laned) during that time.

[rel4]

Many years ago (at least 2 decades ago...likely longer), MDOT moved US 51 onto I-55 through Jackson, but never bothered signing it along I-55.  That they continued to sign the "state maintained" part of State St connecting to I-55 South as US 51 further muddied the waters.

Officially, the transfer of State St between US 80 and then-US 49 (Woodrow Wilson Ave) from MSHD to the city occurred in 1974.  North of Woodrow Wilson, the transfer happened in the 1950's when MSHD built a new 4-lane US 51 from the intersection of US 49 & 51 (State St & Woodrow Wilson Ave) east then north to the Madison County line.  That 4-lane road eventually became Woodrow Wilson Ave from State St to I-55 and I-55 from Exit 98A to 103.

Removal of state highway signs was not done in a timely manner way back when.  There are (were?) still some old colored US and triangle state highway signs in downtown Greenwood as of a few years ago.

[cbalducc]

It is the type of soil that is most common in Mississippi. This type of soil has caused problems in the past on Mississippi's roadways.

I don't think it is found in the Mississippi Delta, which also has unstable soil.

[richllewis]

It was reported by MDOT that they were doing some construction to widen the Railroad bridge over the KCS -Meridian Speedway line near Lost Gap, MS. If you do not know where Lost Gap is, the railroad goes under I-20 that is right before you get to HWY 80 coming from Jackson or after Hwy 80 coming from Meridian. There is a Truck stop on 80 before 80 merges on to I-20 at Lost Gap to go to Meridian. Please drive slowly in this area as all work zones.

[SSF]

Drove through there tonight, wondered what the work was, and how the project had started up so quickly.

Mercifully, most of the bridge projects seem to be done or close to done so traffic will be smooth for that 80 mile stretch between the 20/59 split and Jackson.

[codyg1985]

That work reminds me of what was done on I-59 in Pearl River County; adding shoulders to the existing bridges.

[richllewis]

Today, MDOT is going to start widening I-55 from Jackson to Byrum. They are going to widen I-55 from 4 to 6 lanes.This article: http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/22285291/mdot-to-begin-widening-and-reconstruction-of-i-55-in-hinds-county-jackson-miss-friday-may-17-2013-beginning-monday-may-20-the-mississippi-department  tells a little bit about the story I-55 will be widened from 4 to six lanes from Mc Dowell Rd in Jackson to Siwell Rd in Byrum. The project will be concluded by 2015

[brownpelican]

Today, MDOT is going to start widening I-55 from Jackson to Byrum. They are going to widen I-55 from 4 to 6 lanes.This article: http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/22285291/mdot-to-begin-widening-and-reconstruction-of-i-55-in-hinds-county-jackson-miss-friday-may-17-2013-beginning-monday-may-20-the-mississippi-department  tells a little bit about the story I-55 will be widened from 4 to six lanes from Mc Dowell Rd in Jackson to Siwell Rd in Byrum. The project will be concluded by 2015

YES!!!!! *pumps fist*

Took them long enough to get it together. They're probably raising the Elton Road overpass and widening the McDowell Road overpass.

[froggie]

I'd have preferred seeing them fix the rest of the 20/55 duplex (west of the Stack) first.

[golden eagle]

^^
Or the I-20 curve over Valley Street.

I drove down I-55 earlier tonight, but there's no sign of construction work being done. I'm sure it'll ramp up over the next few days, though.