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A SUN HERALD news article dated 3/13/02, titled, “Connectors hinge on getting new funds from state, feds,” revealed the following:
Even though Vision 21, the state’s proposed 20-year highway program, would make new Coast roads a higher priority, two long-awaited connectors between U.S. 90 and Interstate 10 hinge on getting funding from other sources.
A Connector between I-10 and U.S. 90 in Biloxi depends on federal dollars becoming available to do it according to a Vision 21 bill working its way through the Legislature…
“If money doesn’t become available, then it won’t be built,” said Wayne Brown…
Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway hops legislators change the Vision 21 law to ensure that the Biloxi connector gets first dibs. Besides traffic relief, leaders have promoted the connector as a vital hurricane evacuation route.
Meanwhile, a Gulfport connector…depends on the Mississippi Development Authority providing $6 million. Gulfport city officials said they were shocked to learn their project depended on support from the Mississippi Development Authority.
The article also mentioned a project in Northwest Mississippi and an airport connector in Jackson. Brown said of these projects, “The three projects could cost more than $1 billion, far more that the state can afford…I wish it were not that way, but poor folks have poor ways.
Again, it is MDOT, who is designing the “Too Big, Too Ugly, and Too Expensive” projects that he is complaining about and we common people have been telling him that since he took office.
Brown was quoted in the same article, “Federal lawmakers will set the priorities for which gets built first. On November 30, this writer sent a fax o the offices of Congressman Gene Taylor and Senator Trent Lott asking them to explain the procedure wherein federal funds are earmarked to certain projects and what role, if any, their offices have played in the distribution of federal highway funds. To date neither has replied to the fax. Their lack of response indicates to me they are not too proud of their role in the fair distribution of the federal highway funds.
More State (Carrots) Funds and Empty Promises From MDOT Under Vision 21
Legislature Adopts Vision 21-Extends Gaming Road Program, (more funds for MDOT); 1987 Four-Lane Program to Be Finished ( also frees up additional funds for MDOT)
A SUN HERALD news article dated 4/3/02, titled, “Legislature adopts Vision 21,” bylined “Highway plan called boon for South Mississippi,” reveals:
The Legislature added steam Tuesday to the 20-year highway plan that will pick up the pace of road construction in South Mississippi…”
In the final version, House Transportation Chairman J.P. Compretta and Vice-Chairman Randy Pierce tacked on the words “hurricane evacuation routes” among the chief factors the Mississippi Department of Transportation will use to prioritize road work. The other factors are traffic counts, economic development needs and public safety.
The criteria are highly favorable to the fast growing Coast, which has too few routes to move residents and visitors north when a hurricane approaches.
“The Coast has gotten an enormous amount of attention in this legislative session and certainly since I became director, said MDOT Director Larry “Butch” Brown, who took over the agency last year.
“The Coast will see a tremendous difference in the way we address the needs they’ve had for a very long time, and they will see things happen a lot faster.”
“With hurricane evacuations in the mix, the southernmost section from Biloxi to Laurel will probably be built to interstate standards as the first phase, “Pierce said.
Vision 21 will begin when the 1987 Four-Lane Highway Program is complete in about four years…Legislators also extended the expiration deadline of the 1994 Gaming Roads Program from 2012 to 2024.
Highway 57 and several other South Mississippi Roads were added to the bill, although numerous streets, roads, and highways in South Mississippi identified in the Baker Study have been apparently forgotten about.
Federal (Carrots) Funds Dangled
A SUN HERALD article dated 6/8/02, titled, “MDOT wants to speed north-south route,” bylined “Federal demonstration project is the goal,” reveals:
Butch Brown, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, said the agency wants to put a new Gulfport north-south connector road on a “fast track” schedule by making it a federal demonstration project.
Officials plan to integrate traffic and cargo generated by public transit, railroads, ships and highways
“We can move quickly and quicker on our connector road than any other state that I know of,” said Brown. “They tell us we are better equipped and further along than anybody else, if we can just get funding to that, to move quickly.”
…the state does not have the money to pay for the project. MDOT will ask the federal government to make it a demonstration project by earmarking federal funds specifically for the inter-modal experiment.
Brown did not mention…the eastern Harrison County connector road for Biloxi. He was focusing on freight issues… (So much for hurricane evacuation), but added that MDOT is also working on the eastern connector.
Brown said there are other federal funding possibilities. Congress is about to reauthorize the six-year “Transportation Equity Act o for the 21s Century, called T-21, which expires September 30, 2003.
Mississippi received almost $2 billion of the T21 money…
MDOT Received More Federal Funds
A SUN HERALD news article dated 2/22/03, titled, “$397B federal bill is generous toward South Mississippi,” reveals:
South Mississippi is expected to benefit in several ways from a mammoth $397.4 billion bill signed by the president late Thursday that included funding for a variety of public safety, transportation and research projects in the area.
The bill has several perks for Mississippi that were largely the work of Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran.
Mississippi also will received more than $56 million for transportation projects, including $7.8 million for the Pearl River Bridge Airport Connector project and $500,000 for the Coast Transit Authority.
A SUN HERALD news article dated 8/7/02, titled, “Citizens get their wish: Connector route is set,” in an interview of Senator Trent Lott by the Sun Herald editorial board regarding the Biloxi Connector reveals:
Federal and state officials have finally decided on a route for the city’s north-south connector road, but when it will be built and where the money will come from remain unknown.
“Wayne Brown and Butch Brown have been paying good attention to the Gulf Coast,” Lott said.
Wayne Brown said, “it will take at least eight years to complete the highway, and that’s a best-case scenario.”
Lott didn’t say if federal money will be available for the highway…
A SUN HERALD article dated 1/17/03, titled, “Gulfport Connector 10 years off,” reveals the following:
The Gulfport connector road…likely won’t be built for 10 more years, officials with the Mississippi Department of Transportation said Thursday.
A SUN HERALD news article dated, 1/18/03, titled, “Connector roads will never be built, many locals fear,” reveals:
Many South Mississippi residents doubt that new connection highways…will ever be built because MDOT keeps pushing back the timetable.
The latest delay was announced this week: Officials with the Mississippi Department of Transportation said that construction of a Gulfport connector road won’t start for another 10 years. Prior estimates had the project starting in 2005.
More Federal Funds For MDOT
A SUN HERALD news article dated 6/21/03, titled, “MDOT: Feds support road,” bylined, “State hopes to get $60 million to help fund connector,” reveals the following information:
Officials with the Mississippi Department of Transportation believed the federal government will pay for about $60 million of Gulfport’s $250 million connector road…
Butch Brown…and Wayne Brown…met with U.S. Sens. Trent Lott and Thad Cochran and with Mary Peters of the Federal Highway Administration on Friday to talk about funding for the project.
Brown said he isn’t sure when MDOT will find out about the federal money, but he said plans for building the road will continue.
After the above news article MDOT came up with a new wrinkle to obtain money for the Gulfport Connector.
Toll Roads (Carrots) and Bonds (Carrots) For MDOT
A SUN HERALD news article dated 10/22/03, titled, “Toll could help fun connector,” revealed the following:
Butch Brown…said a “limited” toll system is needed to help pay for the planned $300 million highway connector (Gulfport Connector). Brown said the state could charge out-of-state-trucks a fee for driving through Mississippi.
He said the project would take 15-20 years to build under standard funding practices.” “If we have a source of toll revenue, then the bankers step forward and say we’ll build it”…Brown asked state legislators for their help in passing legislation providing MDOT with the tools needed to expedite construction of the connector.
The state Legislature would have to pass legislation enabling MDOT to levy tolls. He said the legislation was needed “pretty damn quickly.”
A CLARION LEDGER news article dated 10/28/03, titled “Legislators to vote on toll system in Gulfport,” reveals the following:
Out-of-state trucks would be taxed to help pay for highway construction.
State legislators may be asked to approve a plan to charge a toll to out-or-state trucks to help pay for a $300 million highway connecting I-10 wit the state port at Gulfport.
“We’ve got to have tolling, the no-no word that nobody wants to talk about,” Brown said…Without tolls, he said, it could take 15-20 years to pay for such a road. 14 |
