October 18, 2006

Beltway focus of D.C. trip

By ANDREW UJIFUSA

Assistant Managing Editor

The Madison County Foundation's annual trip to Washington, D.C. was spent lobbying for, among other projects, a long-term plan for a metro loop around Jackson that the group said would alleviate local traffic and create economic benefits for businesses such as Nissan.

Although the Foundation has consistently lobbied for a similar set of projects over the last few years, such as Reunion Parkway and northeast Madison County economic development, the concept of the beltway and its importance to Madison County is more recent, according to Foundation President Elizabeth Raley.

Controversy still remains, however, over the previously proposed realignment of Mississippi 22 as it concerns Flora. Mayor Scott Greaves has said that the Foundation, over the objection of the city's government, is pursuing the realignment of Mississippi 22 so that it will not pass through the town in the future, and that this would be very harmful to Flora's business community. Flora officially announced its opposition to such a project last May.

Raley has countered, however, that the Foundation is no longer pursuing the construction of a Mississippi 22 bypass around Flora, and that the focus of the Foundation is now on the metro loop.

The idea behind a Jackson metro beltway is currently under review by MDOT, according to Central District Commissioner Dick Hall (who accompanied the Foundation to Washington), and should be released this month or in November. The project itself, he said, could actually come to fruition anywhere from 25 to 40 years from now. No maps or proposals of the location of the loop have been made public, and no cost figure is currently available.

Hall said that in addition to the large number of interstate travelers who would benefit from this loop, a variety of issues in the tri-county area will be solved or alleviated by its construction. People wishing to drive from Brandon to Canton, for example, would be greatly helped by the construction of the loop, and could avoid using interstate roads, Hall said.

The Canton to Edwards Corridor, the portion of the metro loop which the Foundation lobbied for, would remove trucks from Interstate 55/220/20 metro roads and increase the lifespan of those roads, according to the Foundation's description of the project.

The Foundation also argued that the new corridor would allow for more economic growth in three local counties by providing more transportation access to undeveloped land.

"The project would increase the residential, commercial and industrial development potential for Hinds and Warren counties, relative to the Nissan development in the Canton (Madison County) area by providing a shorter, more direct route," states the Foundation's project brief that was submitted to Mississippi's Washington delegation.

"This is one of the answers for local issues," said Hall, responding to questions about the balance between short-term solutions for local problems and the long term vision of MDOT and metro Jackson roads. "This is one of the answers about getting traffic out of the areas where it is now. This is part of the solution."

Hall credited Sen. Trent Lott with spurring on MDOT and the Foundation to imagine the larger project of the loop.

"When we first mentioned [the loop] to him, he jumped at it. He could clearly see the future for it," said Hall.

The Jackson transportation beltway, however, is not what concerns Flora officials about the Washington lobbying trip. Mayor Scott Greaves stated that during the D.C. visit, Foundation officials told him that the re-alignment of Mississippi 22 around Flora was still part of the overall project proposal for the road.

He protested any such re-alignment, saying that its stated purpose, to allow heavier trucks to bypass the town, would be overshadowed by the damage done to Flora businesses by depriving them of regular car traffic.

"When we went to Washington, they were still lobbying for it," said Greaves, adding that traffic on Mississippi 22 had dropped over recent years, making a re-alignment unnecessary.

"In a nutshell, for me and my town…I have yet to have anybody tell me that we need that loop," he said.

Any proposed metro beltway, he pointed out, was of minimal concern to his town.

"We're not worried about 15 years down the road…what we're worried about is helping our businesses," said Greaves.

Raley categorically denied that the Foundation was still pushing for the realignment of Mississippi 22 around Flora. She said that the planning of the Jackson-area beltway had moved the project beyond the idea of re-aligning the road.

"We're not involved in that," said Raley. "If the county wants to get state dollars for the realignment of 22, I'm most certain that we would support it and go to MDOT."

In the "Infrastructure Priorities" presentation made to elected officials in Washington in September 2005, a portion of the Mississippi 22 project description reads: "Also included will be a re-alignment [of the Mississippi] around the Town of Flora…the new Mississippi 22 will consist of four lanes with a divided median."

In the presentation from September of this year, this sentence has been removed, and the word "re-alignment" does not appear in relation to the Mississippi 22 project.

The 2006 project description notes that the focus on Mississippi 22 began in 2002 as an effort to alleviate local traffic, and then states: "Over the next four years, this project has grown from the reconstruction of the existing Mississippi to the possible creation of a limited access road that would be the first leg of a loop/beltway around the metro area."

In the 2006 presentation, the construction of a Flora bypass, which had been part of the 2005 presentation with an estimated total cost of $86 million, was not listed.

The project description in this year's presentation includes a route location study, an environmental impact assessment, and the right-of-way acquisition, and costs a total of $13.9 million.

Greaves said that he would be very pleased if the Foundation had in fact decided to stop lobbying for the highway re-alignment.

"That suits the heck out of me. I love that," he said.

Other projects the Foundation presented to Washington lawmakers included several that have been the subject of past lobbying efforts included the Reunion Parkway from U.S. Highway 51 at Green Oak Lane to Mississippi 463, the Madison-Ridgeland connector roads for I-55, and economic development for northeast Madison County.