Picayune’s favorite shortcut will be cut short due to overlay road work and the installation of a dead end.

Telly Road, specifically the short stretch between U.S. 11 and Memorial Boulevard, is known for hosting the most accidents in Picayune. To alleviate that problem the City of Picayune has plans to make that section into a one way road with a dead end on the U.S. 11 side.

Public Works Director Chad Frierson said the high number of accidents prompted the change to the area and those changes will be begin Dec. 11. Frierson said most of the accidents occurred at the intersections of South Haugh and Telly and U.S. 11 and Telly.

“It’s a highly traveled road and we’ve been having a lot of accidents,” Frierson said.

Originally the work was planned to begin on Dec. 4, but a delay pushed the work back a week, Frierson said. Huey Stockstill, operation manager for the contractor who will perform the overlay work and install the dead end, said the work was pushed back because a previous job was pushed back. In addition the cold weather expected for this week will hinder any progress that could have been made.

Stockstill said the best temperature to lay asphalt is more than 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Next week’s forecast does not have a good outlook for those kind of conditions for prolonged periods of time, he said.

The work will involve asphalt overlay from Memorial Boulevard intersection on Telly Road to the intersection of Culpepper Street on Telly Road, Frierson said. Instead of remaining a two way street it will now be a one way road with travel along Telly Road going from Memorial Boulevard to Culpepper Street. Changing the two lane street into a one way road will be done by utilizing a 12 foot travel lane and leave a three foot shoulder on each side of the travel lane, Frierson said.

“So people should have plenty of room to travel,” Frierson said.

In addition a dead end will be installed at the end of Telly Road that approaches U.S. 11 ending to access to the highly traveled highway from Telly Road, he said. This will cause motorists to stop at the intersection of Telly and Culpepper Street where they will only have the choice of a left or right turn, Frierson said. Where the intersection of Telly and U.S. 11 currently is will be turned into a small area of green space after the asphalt is removed, he said. Culpepper Street will need to be used to access U.S. 11 once the work is complete.

This new configuration will still allow access to Varnado Realty and Dungan Engineering’s current office.

During the construction process Frierson asks that all traffic on Telly Road be limited to local traffic, or traffic that has business to travel the road. Traffic will be maintained by two officers from the Picayune Police Department.

“It’s going to be in their best interest to avoid the construction,” Frierson said about motorists.

Huey Stockstill has been budgeted 60 days to do the work but Stockstill said the work should only take them a week to do the overlay. Striping and other work will be done by another contractor, Stockstill said.