August 22, 2001

 

To:       Brown & Mitchell, Inc

Re: Your memo dated August 10, 2001 to the Citizens Corridor Committee Members

I am submitting the following in regard to AFinal Route Selection.@                                                                                           

The Citizens Corridor Committee was established by Biloxi City Council Resolution Number 188-99 on April 20, 1999.  This Committee was set up in response to proposals from the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) for a six lane elevated interstate-style expressway from Highway 90 to I-10 through the City of Biloxi, which many citizens saw as threatening to their neighborhoods, businesses, and generally detrimental to the quality of life in Biloxi. MDOT initially claimed that it was mandated to build an expressway type road in order to move large volumes of traffic between I-10 and Highway 90, but MDOT largely ignored the need of Biloxi citizens to be able to access different areas of the City. MDOT=s plan and design totally ignored all of the previous transportation  plans and studies done for or by the City of Biloxi.  MDOT persisted in this plan despite the overwhelming protests from Biloxi citizens.

The above mentioned  Resolution specifically found: (1) The City=s comprehensive plan clarified the need for two four-lane connectors between both the Woolmarket and Cedar Lake interchanges and Highway 90; (2) On March 2, 1999, at a public hearing before the City Council, the overwhelming majority of the citizens of Biloxi in attendance expressed their preference for the Corridor to connect at the Cedar Lake exit; (3) The overwhelming majority at the hearing expressed their support for a ground-level boulevard; (4) The new high school would benefit from a ground level boulevard; (5) Ideally, a new hurricane evacuation route would run from the center of the Biloxi peninsula to the Cedar Lake intersection; (6) An overhead expressway is detrimental to neighborhoods and deters the quality of life in residential and commercial structures in its vicinity; (7) It is in the best interest of the people of the City of Biloxi to prepare a conceptual design that would express the consensus of the values and goals of the  people of Biloxi for the new Corridor.

The Resolution called on MDOT to: (1) review Section 65-39-1 with regard to the Legislature=s intents and requirements for the Corridor (type road and funding approved); (2) evaluate Biloxi=s Comprehensive Plan regarding transportation needs and desired connectors; (3) determine from officials at Keesler Air Force Base (KAFB) and the Veteran=s Administration (VA) reasonable circumstances under which a connector could go through their properties; (4) prepare long range traffic projections based on projected growth...

The Resolution established a Citizens Corridor Committee to: (1) determine goals, including, but not limited to evacuation, cost effectiveness and access to the connector, to be  achieved by a connector and rank them accordingly; (2) determine impact on properties including, but not limited to federal installations, local public facilities, commercial and residential properties; (3) consider alternative alignments and their respective benefits and constraints; (4) coordinate public input to MDOT; (5) make recommendations to the public, Mayor, City Council, and MDOT.

The Resolution designated the Brown and Mitchell, Inc. Engineering to provide technical expertise to the Committee and to hold public hearings.

The Committee has met fourteen times, and each and every meeting has been attended and dominated by MDOT personnel. From the beginning, even before the Committee was formed, MDOT has insisted on doing an elevated six lane interstate type expressway and has always favored starting at the  Woolmarket exit. The actual route MDOT most favors will run southeast across the Tchoutacabouffa River then south across Popps Ferry Road to the Back Bay and then through the west side of the VA property and on to Highway 90.  This is commonly known as the AH-1.@ The H-1 route is only slightly different from the H route in that H-1 is on VA property rather than Hiller Park property.   No other points of view have been allowed, such as the Harrison County Transportation Commission (HCTC)  plan for a county wide system of north-south connectors and an east-west connector as well.

Two of the HCTC proposed connectors for Biloxi would be from the north end of Oak Street across the Bay to LeMoyne Boulevard in St. Martin and from the Cedar Lake exit to area west of KAFB in Biloxi.  Gulf Regional Planning Commission data reveals these two connectors would do far more to lessen traffic congestion on I-110 than MDOT=s proposed H-1 route.  If no connector is built, the peak traffic on I-110 is expected to be 92,800 vehicles per day in the year 2020. One of MDOT=s main goals for building the connector is to take traffic off of I-10.  If the AH@ route were built, the traffic count would only fall to 82,200.  If the Cedar Lake and Oak Street connectors were built, the traffic count on I-110 would drop to 34,000.  It makes much more sense to have these two routes with one bridge each than to put two bridges on the H-1 route. The Committee has absolutely refused to even consider this information.

What the above means is that the Citizen=s Corridor Committee has had no impact on the design and location of the MDOT plan.  A number of Committee members members want only to select one of the MDOT proposed routes and design, which, in my opinion, means the Committee is  being a rubber stamp for MDOT in selecting the route that MDOT wants. In so doing, the Committee has ignored its mandate as set forth in the above resolution, and the Committee has ignored the overwhelming citizen opposition to MDOT=s plans as expressed at citizen input meetings held by MDOT, the City Council, and the Committee=s own public input meetings.  The Committee has also ignored all of the past studies and plans regarding north-south routes for the City of Biloxi, including the most recent study, AVISION 2020 THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN,@ which cost Biloxi citizens over $160,000.