A $1-million construction project on Bluecutt Road is scheduled to be completed in September.
The project, funded by the Mississippi Department of Transportation, will both improve the quality of some intersections as well as make them safer, said city engineer Kevin Stafford.
“We stared at the intersection of Seventh Street,” Stafford said. “We’ve been doing some curb and gutters and we are about to start putting down the final asphalt and putting up a new island with a new traffic light.”
Stafford said the Seventh St. intersection was given precedent due to its proximity to Heritage Academy. Once the construction is completed, work will begin at the intersection of Military Road.
“The dirt work has already started on the Military end,” said Stafford. “We should have everything completed by Sept. 18, but it could be delayed slightly because of the weather.”
The intersection improvements were funded by MDOT with no matching funds required of the city.
“The intersection will have a much cleaner look,” he said. “It should make the intersection safer, too. The new lights we are putting in are detection lights — they will act when a vehicle is detected as opposed to being on a timer.”
Ward 6 Councilman Bill Gavin, whose ward contains the majority of Bluecutt, said more projects are on the horizon for Bluecutt, if funding is made available.
“Bluecutt is a project we have been working on for almost four years,” Gavin said. “It took a long time to get the funding for the first phase of the project. Hopefully, we will be able to get funds so we can widen Bluecutt from Seventh St. to Military.”
As the city is making preliminary plans for an upcoming round of street paving, Gavin said he will be adding a turn lane for Lee Drive on to Bluecutt.
“Lee Drive is widely used by the hospital and I think this will help with the safety on the road,” Gavin said. I’m hoping MDOT will add a red light at the intersection of Lee Drive and Bluecutt. A lot of people have complained to me about adding a light there, but the city has no control over that — MDOT will have to add the red-light and red-lights cost about a quarter of a million dollars.”
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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