NATCHEZ, Miss. – Adams County supervisors on Monday allocated another $360,000 for the long-delayed Morgantown Road improvement project with hopes construction can start in August on the much-traveled, dangerous thoroughfare that’s prone to flooding during heavy rains.
While Adams County and Natchez have cobbled together city, county and federal funds for the multimillion-dollar project, more money is needed as contractors’ proposed costs busted the budget by about $1.3 million.
The county board on Monday agreed to earmark the additional $360,000 for its share from federal funds socked away from an allocation provided by the U.S. Congress in 2021 to local governments for helping stimulate the economy after the COVID pandemic. The Natchez Board of Aldermen voted last month to borrow $240,000 for its share of the extra money needed to start the project, which will focus first on correcting Morgantown Road’s drainage problems.
More money will be sought for resurfacing and widening the road, which will be another phase to do next year.
“This is a real important issue. It affects a ton of people out there,” said Adams County board President Warren Gaines, pointing to the Morgantown Road area’s residential neighborhoods, churches and public school.
Gaines and Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson have both expressed confidence work can start this summer for the drainage-improvement phase. Gibson said efforts are being made to get more federal and state funds to reach the needed amount for the road-rebuilding phase, which he noted has been delayed or “held up” by the state Department of Transportation.
The Natchez-Adams County boards have already received $2.4 million appropriated by the U.S. Congress last year for Morgantown Road reconstruction and nearly $900,000 in federal funds distributed by the state Department of Environmental Quality for drainage improvements. Those funds are combined with dollars set aside by the local boards to include at least $920,000 allocated by county supervisors and $580,000 by city aldermen for the drainage project.
With the extra funds the boards have now allocated, new price bids are being sought for contractors to set how much they’ll charge for the project’s drainage phase estimated to cost more than $2 million.
Gibson said last month he met with Mississippi’s two U.S. senators and others in Washington to discuss the need for more funds for the road construction phase. He said the state Legislature could also be asked to provide money next year.
The one-mile stretch of Morgantown Road has been called the most dangerous thoroughfare in Adams County. It begins inside Natchez off U.S. 61 north and stretches out into the county. Local officials have been struggling for more than a decade to come up with money to improve it.
I thought they bid out the work on the road again and it came back under the $6 million allocated at $5.1 million. Or did I dream that?