Contractors are making progress on restoring order to downtown McComb more than two weeks after a July 23 building collapse, and motorists may soon be driving through the area again.
Mayor Whitney Rawlings said Monday that a permanent utility pole has been placed and the streets have been washed down.
The area will partially reopen to traffic as soon as the Mississippi Department of Transportation restripes Broadway and turns on the traffic signals.
That was expected to happen as soon as Monday or today, but it remained unclear if a rainy forecast would delay striping — a linchpin incumbent upon drying paint to restoring access.
While Broadway and Third Street would be accessible to traffic, Rawlings said the western half of the 200 block of Main Street would remained cordoned off.
He said engineers are still assessing structures located near the collapsed Kramer Roof building and the adjacent City Drug Store building, whose structural integrity remains questionable.
“We still have issues to resolve with the facade of the City Drug Store,” Rawlings said.
Cable One, AT&T and MDOT were all connecting to new utility poles and Entergy would run the last connection before turning on the traffic signals.
Speaking just before the start of a hearing on the status of downtown buildings in city court on Monday afternoon, Rawlings indicated that the city wouldn’t appeal a judge’s decision to lift temporary condemnation orders on affected downtown properties.
“Pretty much everybody’s going to be allowed back into their buildings,” he said.
