Project status of US 90 bridges in Mississippi

This report was on the then-status of the destroyed US 90 bridges in Mississippi. This was posted on September 29, 2005.

Project status of US 90 bridges in Mississippi

MDOT has submitted a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the two main bridge projects it has along US 90 in the wake of Katrina: the Bay St. Louis and Biloxi-Ocean Springs bridges. The two bridge replacement projects will both be Design-Build projects. Both projects will build new high-rise bridges at each location (probably with 65 ft of vertical clearance) as well as partially or fully replace bridges immediately nearby. The nearby bridges in both cases carry US 90 over the parallel CSX tracks. At Ocean Springs the CSX underpass will be replaced entirely, while at Henderson Point only part of the bridge will be replaced....of note is that the Henderson Point CSX underpass was just built in 2000.

According to the RFQs, MDOT has received a Categorical Exclusion for the Bay St. Louis bridge, probably because even though it will be elevated it will remain 4 lanes. In layman's terms, this means they won't have to do environmental studies on the bridge replacement, and in fact the project is expected to be let in December with a target completion of June '07.

MDOT will be performing an Environmental Assessment for the Biloxi-Ocean Springs Bridge replacement, presumably because the replacement will have more lanes than the destroyed bridge. That said, curiously this project has the same time schedule as the Bay St. Louis replacement. Perhaps they'll be allowed to do an accelerated environmental overview given the critical nature of the project in light of Katrina and reconstruction efforts.

The RFQs are posted on MDOT's website at http://www.gomdot.com/business/bridge/ . Hoping we see more project-specific information there as the projects continue.

In other news, most of the signage along I-10 either survived or has been replaced, while I continue to pass downed and broken signs along I-59 every day on my commute.

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