BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) – $155 million is the price tag for widening I-10 to six lanes from Diamondhead to Long Beach. Southern District Transportation Commissioner Charles Busby told WLOX News, the entire I-10 corridor needs that treatment.
“We need it from Louisiana to Alabama, all the way across Mississippi, we need to widen I-10,” he said.
A large portion of the interstate is already six lanes in Harrison and Jackson counties. But Busby said one area in particular is in need of widening: Gautier to the Alabama line. However, a bottle neck of the roadway in Pascagoula proves troublesome.
“The Pascagoula River Bridge is gonna be a tremendous obstacle. It’s going to make that segment very expensive,” he explained.” I don’t know what the best idea is right now. Perhaps you build another two lane bridge and you pay a toll for it.”
Busby said that it’s a similar issue with the Pearl River Bridge into Louisiana. Turning that bridge into six lanes would cost millions of dollars, and even though it connects both states, the responsibility falls on Mississippi.
“I don’t know if people know how this works, but the bridges alternate responsibility. The first bridge, the Highway 90 bridge, is the responsibility of Louisiana. The second bridge, the one on I-10, is the responsibility of Mississippi, and as you work your way up, they alternate responsibility. We’re going to have to do our part on the Pearl River Bridge, and Louisiana is going to have to do their part on the closed Highway 90 bridge.”
The Highway 90 bridge into Louisiana closed in 2022 after inspectors deemed it unsafe for travel. Louisiana lawmakers have previously said that the state does not have the funds to replace the bridge for now, and it could be five years before work begins.
While Louisiana looks at funding sources, Busby said that the Mississippi Lottery is making a big difference for fixing and paving roads and bridges.
“The lottery money was targeted tot he maintenance program, so we’re doing a lot of repaving on that. A lot of repaving that was done on Highway 49 was the result of lottery money.”
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