MONTICELLO — Supervisors are expected to contract an engineerduring the regular meeting Monday to begin preparations on the newHighway 44 bridge.

Supervisors voted last month to proceed with the project ofextending Highway 44 across the Pearl River despite the county’sabsorbing most of the cost.

“This is important,” said Beat 5 Supervisor Calvin Fortenberry.”It will increase emergency response times and give our southerncounty residents another place to cross the Pearl River withouthaving to come north to Monticello or go south to Columbia.”

The engineer would examine the possible route of Highway 44 eastof Highway 27 and determine the best place to cross the river.

Once the route is established, the process of buying land andright-of-ways would begin.

“This isn’t something that will happen overnight,” Fortenberrysaid, “but we have made it a priority.”

Another county project, however, has been put on hold whilesupervisors concentrate on higher priority items.

The Lawrence County Sports Complex project set for theIndustrial Park will still be done, Fortenberry said, but work willnot begin on it now. He could not say when work might begin on thatproject.