20 June 2008

Mississippi: Oil prices may kill non-maintenence roadwork



Sun-Herald: Road building may hit dead end

This story just proves how much oil prices are throwing everything into chaos these days. In this case, the costs of building new roads is becoming too prohibitive. Because of this, widening projects on MS 26, MS 43, US 11 and MS 603 are being delayed or are otherwise in jeopardy. I've driven parts of all four of those (albeit pre-Katrina), and they could use some work, indeed.

The MS 57 widening, the Vancleave bypass and the first phase of a connector from I-10 to downtown Gulfport aren't being axed, since they already have the funding in place. Only new roads and widenings seem to be threatened with the axe at the moment.

If it's happening there, how long will it take for other states to feel the crunch and have to belt-tighten?

2 comments:

Froggie said...

The US 11 and MS 43/MS 603 work in particular hit me hard. MDOT's been talking about widening US 11 through Picayune in some way, shape, or form for years. Only thing we've seen is a center turn lane added for about a mile north of MS 43, and it took post-Katrina money just to do that.

Anytime I have to head out to Gulfport, and I'm not leaving from Stennis, I have to deal with the slog that is MS 43 between Picayune and the Kiln. That's another one...they've been talking about a Kiln bypass for years, and it was close to starting, but now looks like it's on hold...AGAIN...

Unknown said...

Right now,I don't know of anything regionally(SE NY) that's being hit too hard. Most really major projects are Thruway-related, so any loss in petrol tax revenue doesn't apply. They're resurfacing the IH 84 between j1 and j3(it needs it badly), apparently before they turn it back over to NYSDOT.

The worrisome thing will be the NY 17->IH 86 upgrade, and any IH 99 works which are all on the State's dime. There's the Parksville bypass('exit 98'), and the Hale Eddy rebuild west of Hancock, NY. Parkesville has an approved plan; Hale Eddy is unclear: they're still hashing out alternatives, and works aren't even expected to begin until 2012.