A Tuesday meeting focusing on McComb’s transportation networks included plans to remove cloverleaf interstate exits, improve safety on Veterans Boulevard, add bicycle and walking trails and improve air and rail service.
But most all in attendance at the meeting sponsored by city officials and featuring consultant Rick Duke agreed the city must repair its streets.
The meeting was the second of nine Duke will host in order to focus on ways the city can use its “assets” to grow the economy and improve quality of life.
“The interior roads are terrible,” city recreation director Joseph Parker said.
Mayor Whitney Rawlings said he isn’t ignoring the severity of road conditions.
“We are working on a 10-year plan to tackle all streets within the city,” he said, without elaborating.
Mississippi Department of Transportation officials also noted plans to remove the cloverleaf intersections at the Presley Boulevard-Interstate 55 interchange.
MDOT District Engineer Albert White said the cloverleaf ramps will be replaced with a standard diamond interchanges similar to those at Delaware Avenue and Veterans Boulevard. He gave no start date for the work but said the process could take one to two years.
Officials said an apparent difficulty in negotiating cloverleaf intersections keeps motorists from using them to get off the interstate and patronize businesses, and the intersections take up land that could otherwise be used for development.
There also are plans to improve Veterans Boulevard by adding four traffic lights to the intersections coming off I-55 and the Apache Drive access road that runs parallel to it.
The signals will work as a “single intersection” to control traffic, MDOT construction engineer Ken Morris said this morning.
MDOT also has a $2 million project to repair several bridges in the area, he said.
The group also discussed:
• The potential for improvement to the Amtrak train depot, stating that it is the “front door” to the city for rail passengers.
• How the McComb/Pike County Airport can be an economic cornerstone of the city and what needs to be done to improve its aesthetic appeal.
• A “rails to trails” program that turns old railways into biking and walking trails.
• A plan to improve the curb appeal of the city by encouraging residents to take pride in their properties and eliminate litter.
While this meeting was held to brainstorm ideas, it was clear that action needed to be taken on some of the issues.
“Without a plan we will just continue to talk,” Parker said.
Others attending included representatives from Amtrak, the McComb-Pike County Airport and State Sen. Kelvin Butler of McComb.
Duke is the former Director of the University of Southern Mississippi’s Trent Lott National Center for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship. The city hired him earlier this year to conduct a $17,500 economic development study. He left the university in June.
