MDOT Repairs to Coast Transportation System to Take Time

by Keith Burton - GCN        Filed 7/31/06

Don't look for speedy repairs to the Coast's transportation infrastructure any time soon. The Mississippi Department of Transportation is notoriously slow to do needed work, and that remains the case nearly one year after hurricane Katrina.

It took MDOT nearly four months to get a contract underway for the destroyed bridge over Bay St. Louis, and another three months after that contract to award work to rebuild the Biloxi-Ocean Springs bridge. Those bridges will not be open any earlier than late next year. Even so, MDOT likely considers those projects to have been awarded with what amounts to blazing speed. But what about the additional work?

For example, drivers are routinely bouncing off the sharp turn at the south end of I-110 in Biloxi. The sharp 90 degree turn onto U.S. 90 west has long been a dangerous place for drivers since the I-110 has been built, but it is made even more dangerous at night as the street lights along the bridge and at the intersection have been out since the hurricane.

In addition, MDOT is responsible for the landscaping along the I-110 bridge in Biloxi. Currently, the area looks much as Katrina left it. Broken slabs, torn up trees and damaged lights and sidewalks currently welcomes visitors to Biloxi nearly a year after Katrina. This is a disgrace that the public should not have to tolerate, but do because public officials and some so-called community leaders are kowtowed by MDOT.  The agency has received broad criticism by many politicians and the press for how it goes about its business. On the Coast, many people have not seen MDOT act with speed or enthusiasm on any commitment to restore the Coast's transportation infrastructure.

GCN has interviewed the MDOT's director Butch Brown, and interviewed the agency's Southern District Commission Wayne Brown. The two men are not related. Wayne Brown is usually cordial and informative, but his timetables for events are often optimistic. Butch Brown, MDOT's director, is often called smart and tyrannical, and even arrogant, with a great dislike for reporters. We found no reason to dispute those observations. But like any large organization, there are many fine people and excellent workers. It is often unfortunate that MDOT's leaders hide behind those mostly underpaid workers, while the upper management wheels and deals.

Highway 90 itself took enormous damage, both to the roadway and to its drainage system. While MDOT has fixed the drains and paved the collapsed sections of Highway 90 torn out from the hurricane, those repairs are temporary and the road remains a bumpy, treacherous road prone to flooding and damaging auto suspensions. MDOT says it has plans to remake 90 and improve both the road and the curbing, which is many areas is gone. Even after 11 months from Katrina, work to seriously repair the road is another year away, at the earliest.

MDOT recently announced that it will expedite repairs to the signal lights of Highway 90. Currently, the lights are not electronically synchronized. As traffic is increasing daily on the roadway, the lack of synchronized lights results in frequent and unnecessary traffic congestion.

GCN asked MDOT to clarify what their repair plans are for the Biloxi/Gulfport area. GCN received a response from MDOT's Steve Twedt, assistant engineer of construction.

1)  US 90 reconstruction will begin with the first project being let to
contract in July of 2007.  We do not have an estimate of how long the
construction will take.  There will be three projects, and they will be
going on concurrently.  This will be for new pavement, curb and
sidewalks.

2)  I 110 light repairs are schedule to be let to contract in September
of this year.

3)  Any landscaping at the I 110 ramps at US 90 interchange that needs
to be replaced will be added to the US 90 landscaping project scheduled for the October 2006 letting.

4)  There will be four US 90 signal projects the first project will be
let to contract in October of this year.  Two will be let to contract in
November and the remaining project will go to contract in January.  The
signals will be complete replacements, with mast arm poles.  They will
be fully actuated with video detection and radio interconnects.

The work on U.S. 90 is particularly disturbing. The timetable for repairs start in 2007. It seems likely that work will be continuing well into the time when many of the Coast's casinos are open and even past when the bridges will reopen. This, and the other repairs just don't seem to be timely enough and that MDOT's plans could continue to inhibit the Coast's recovery for well up until the end of this decade unless business and political pressures can be found to improve MDOT's performance.

MDOT is excellent at announcing new work, but it has a serious problem completing projects on deadline and in a timely manner. For example, work on the new four-lane Highway 67 from the I-110 to Highway 49 appears at a standstill.  Seven years ago, in April 1999, then Governor Kirk Fordice signed a $20-million dollar general obligation bond to build the new road, and while the land has been cleared and bridges built, large sections of the road are no more than a highway of weeds. This road was to form a critically needed evacuation route for the Coast. MDOT is also stalled regarding the East Biloxi Connector and bridge across Back Bay, approved in 1997.

MDOT also has announced more recently plans to build a north-south connector road at Canal Road off of I-10 in west Gulfport. But work on that road is also likely to take years to be completed.