Supervisors discuss county wide paving project

Tyler Johnson - WRJW News

During its meeting on Monday, the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors met to discuss a large number of topics, one of which is the ongoing county wide paving project which is now in Phase III.

During the first two phases of said project there has been over 100 total miles of road paved already.

According to County Engineer Les Dungan, by using costs from the first two phases, they are now able to estimate the cost of the project going into Phase 3 and also break down the funds by district. With the funds available and the costs of labor and materials, it is determined that approximately 57 miles of road can be repaired in Phase III

.

Since the start of the project, the cost of materials has gone up tremendously, and there has also been a shortage of certain materials. The labor for phase three will be in-house rather than contracted, according to Dungan.

District 3 Supervisor Hudson Holiday provided his thoughts on the progress and what's ahead.

“By dividing 20 years of road life into 800 miles, you have to do 40 miles per year just to break even. In a good year we are doing 25 miles. This will be a good opportunity for us to get ahead and give the people better roads. However, going forward we have got to have a good plan and a well-oiled plan to get this done”.

Dungan added a note about winter weather and rain that could slow the project down a little bit on the hot mix portion, but the board has decided to forge ahead with the Double Bituminous Surface Treatment pavement ( DBST) portion of the project with it being able to be completed despite these weather challenges.