Progress is slow but steady on a project to four-lane Highway27, officials say.

Monticello Mayor David Nichols and Crystal Springs Mayor WalterReilly recently met with Central District TransportationCommissioner Rich Hall and secured his support for the project.

Officials from Crystal Springs south to New Orleans are bandingtogether to promote a project that would four-lane MississippiHighway 27 from Crystal Springs south to the state line, where itbecomes Louisiana Highway 25 and continues south to the New Orleansarea.

The project would serve as an evacuation corridor for residentsof southern Louisiana, Nichols said.

Mississippi would benefit by channeling those evacuees into thelocal area, boosting hotel, gas and food purchases, duringemergencies, but more importantly, he said, it would provide atremendous economic advantage.

Coupled with the recent upgrade of Highway 84, if the Highway 27project is completed it would place Monticello at the hub of majorfour-lane highways traveling north, south, east and west.

“I’ve never hid the fact that I think this would be good for theeconomy,” Nichols said.

Hall was supportive of the project, Nichols said.

“He was very receptive to the idea because he got caught in thetraffic from Ivan, so he knows from personal experience that whatis there doesn’t work,” the mayor said.

According to Nichols, Hall said it took him 12 hours to travelfrom New Orleans to Crystal Springs after arriving at the airportfrom a trip prior to the hurricane’s landfall.

Nichols said supporters of the project also recently met withJefferson Parish (La.) President Aaron Broussard, a member of theRegional Planning Commission, and secured his support.

The next step will hopefully happen in May, the mayor said.

“There is a possibility that the coalition may get to presentthis at a hurricane conference in New Orleans. This is importantbecause we would be hitting people that would be using this routethat probably don’t know anything about it,” Nichols said.

The mayor said he was confident would eventually be completedbecause of the vast support network of local, regional and stateofficials already on board.

Officials began organizing the project two years ago and havealready secured up to $2 million in pledged federal funds.