MONTICELLO – Heavy loads will continue to roll smoothly in andout of Lawrence County’s Georgia Pacific mill, thanks to theinclusion of access road improvements in a $52.6 millionappropriations bill passed out of the Senate AppropriationsCommittee last week.

MONTICELLO – Heavy loads will continue to roll smoothly in andout of Lawrence County’s Georgia Pacific mill, thanks to theinclusion of access road improvements in a $52.6 millionappropriations bill passed out of the Senate AppropriationsCommittee last week.

During their annual visit with Mississippi’s congressionaldelegation in Washington D.C. last week, Lawrence County andMonticello leaders again discussed the $315,000 line item in thebill for the completion of ongoing upgrades to N. A. SandiferHighway. The road joins the mill to Highway 27.

If passed, the bill – which now goes before the full Senate forconsideration – will allow the highway to be completed to improvedstandards.

“When the project was let (last year), there was a gray area aboutthe rebuilding of the railroad crossing close to Highway 27,” saidLawrence County Community Development Foundation Director BobSmira. “Since it’s a State Aid road, state engineering requirementsare that the crossing be rebuilt and upgraded to certain standards,and that wasn’t calculated into the project.”

Smira said inadequate funding for the completion of the highway andits railroad crossing would have resulted in the county footing thebill and foregoing miles of road improvements in other placesacross the county.

“The supervisors were going to have to do it over the next fouryears by taking a little each year out of state aid road money tocover the cost,” he said. “Somewhere between 10 and 12 miles ofState Aid roads in the county would not have any work done becauseof what we would have to pay for that crossing. So, we said, ‘Heck,let’s just go back and ask for federal assistance.'”

Smira said N. A. Sandifer Highway, with a weight limit of 56,000pounds, was built in the 1960s to support Georgia Pacific. Butstate hauling limits have increased to more than 80,000 pounds overthe last 40 years, and Georgia Pacific has gone from receivingabout 300 trucks per day in the 1960s to approximately 1,300 trucksper day presently.

“A road designed for 56,000 pounds has had two to three times moreheavy traffic than ever imagined,” Smira said. “It has taken abeating over the years.”

The county has borrowed money in the past to keep the road inshape, Smira said, and secured a $1.1 million direct appropriationto start the main overhaul years ago. The latest appropriation, ifpassed in the Senate, will “finish up the tail end” of theproject.

“We’ll do whatever we can to make sure the road is passable,however we can do it,” Smira said. “Georgia Pacific is still thelargest employer in the county – we’re supporting the mill andthey’re supporting us.”

While work on N. A. Sandifer Highway was the only project toreceive immediate attention in the week-long meetings with SenatorsThad Cochran and Roger Wicker and Representatives Bennie Thompsonand Chip Pickering, the delegation from Lawrence County andMonticello maintained support for several other ongoing and futureprojects.

The delegation joined other counties in Mississippi and Louisianato rally for the enlargement of Highway 27 into a four-lane route.Smira said the interested parties are seeking funding to conduct astudy of the highway and all the economic and environmental factorsthat would have to be considered in its enlargement.

The chief reason for converting the highway into a four-lane routeis for disaster evacuation in the event of another massivehurricane. Smira said Highway 27, which is designated Highway 25 inLouisiana, was heavily used as an evacuation route during HurricaneKatrina.

Smira said any enlargement of the highway would be done withcontraflow in mind. Contraflow is the usage of all four lanes tofunnel traffic north during an evacuation or south during recoveryefforts.

“The number of hours it takes to evacuate New Orleans after a majorstorm is not progressing, but regressing,” Smira said. “Thatdoesn’t speak well of our capabilities to get people out of harm’sway. Highway 25/27 is always the last road to close going out andto reopen going back in. It stands to reason that this is the roadto work with.”

The Lawrence County delegation also attended a meeting of theFive-State El Camino Commission, a joint effort by Mississippi,Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas to have U.S. Highway 84four-laned across all five states.

Monticello Mayor Dave Nichols said the meeting was attended in theinterest of supporting the other states on the commission, asHighway 84 is four-laned through most of Mississippi.

“It really doesn’t benefit me totally unless it’s done in all fivestates,” he said.

Nichols said the widening of Highway 84, as well as that of Highway27, would present Lawrence County with new economic developmentopportunities.

“Give me a four-lane running east and west, a four-lane runningnorth and south basically from New Orleans to Memphis, Tenn., andSouthwest Mississippi can become a manufacturing and distributionhub,” he said. “We can distribute to some mighty big markets rightout of little ‘ole Monticello.”