During Monday’s Pearl River County Board of Supervisors meeting, county engineer Les Dungan informed the board that state aid funds were now available to repair the bridge on George Ford Road.
The bridge, which has needed repairs for a long time, is located right before motorists reach Burgetown and Holcomb-Carroll Road, County Administrator Adrain Lumpkin said Monday afternoon.
Dungan recommended that the board award the project to Pearl River Paving in the amount of $293,161, which they did.
With state aid projects, the contractors have what is called working day performance time, Dungan said, which excludes weekends, holidays and inclement weather days.
“They have a set construction time and penalties will be incurred if the project is not complete,” he said. “The road will be closed and signs put in place to direct traffic around the site. We are anticipating that the road will be closed for about two months. Burgetown Road provides a good detour.”
Prior to planning a project, Dungan said he completes an analysis to determine whether there will be an onsite detour or a detour route posted, which is based on the number of vehicles on the route and the length of the detour.
“There needs to be about 2,000 cars traveling per day for an onsite detour,” Dungan said. “We look at all the costs and inconvenience to our traveling public.”
The work is scheduled to begin in about a month, Dungan said Tuesday. They are waiting to receive the contractor’s bond and insurance information. Once that’s done, they will be pre-construction meetings.
In other action, the board approved a number of travel items:
–– NRA handgun training in Pass Christian on April 11-15 for one sheriff’s department officer.
–– Juvenile Justice Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 20-23 for the county attorney.
–– Training in Biloxi for the chancery clerk and two deputies on February 2.
–– Convention in Jackson on February 9-11 for the chancery clerk.
The next board meeting will be held on Feb. 17 at 9 a.m.