News - Local

Monday, Nov. 02, 2009

Jackson County gets commitments for connector road

OCEAN SPRINGS — Three Jackson County supervisors went to Congress last week and returned with pledges of support for the Interstate 10 connector road that would tie the shopping mecca of Sangani Boulevard to Washington Avenue north of I-10.

Supervisor John McKay said he and supervisors Mike Mangum and Melton Harris returned from Washington with commitments from the office of Sen. Thad Cochran, and from Sen. Roger Wicker and Rep. Gene Taylor personally.

“Taylor was very enthusiastic,” McKay said. “He said it’s a project that’s got to happen.”

The county has $6 million in the bank from previous congressional allotments and $2.8 million in the national funding pipeline for the project, he said.

“We’ll need an additional $3 million next budget cycle, 2011, to complete it,” he said. But he said they left with verbal support.

“They said they’d work with us,” McKay said.

The county contingent sought federal highway money that’s set aside through the state.

In the case of the connector road, it’s a necessity and a safety issue, he said.

He said a connector road would keep Jackson County residents from having to get onto I-10 to reach the popular shopping area. What’s happening now is they get off the interstate in a highly congested traffic area.

He said it’s also an economic development issue, assuming businesses will develop along the connector road once it’s built.

The exact path of the road is still being engineered and has not been determined, McKay said. One route is to follow just north of I-10 like a frontage road. Another is to basically widen Cook Road, an existing county road that is parallel to I-10, but further north and already ties Tucker Road (what Washington Avenue is called north of I-10) to Sangani Boulevard.

McKay said following Cook Road would be the least expensive, but the disadvantage is it would take more homes along the way.

Engineers are on board and working on the preliminary designs and feasibility of both routes, “so we can make a decision,” McKay said.