Legislature earmarks $5M for Bozeman widening

A $32 million project to four-lane Bozeman Road got a $5 million shot in the arm from the Legislature and work could begin in January.

The project calling for a four-lane divided median from Mississippi 463 to Reunion Parkway has been in the works for several years, said Trey Baxter, District 2 Madison County supervisor.

“Before I took office five years ago, the federal government gave Madison County $4.5 million for Bozeman Road,” Baxter said, adding the money sat dormant for approximately seven or eight years and the county was at risk of losing the funding.

Baxter said he was able to obtain an extension on the federal grant funds and has since gotten other funding for the project through the state

Last July, the Legislature announced $5 million in funding for the project so in total the project has approximately $14.5 million in funding if Gov. Tate Reeves signs this year’s $5 million appropriation for the project that is included in SB2971, a general obligation bond bill passed April 5 that is awaiting the governor’s signature.

“The governor and the speaker and the lieutenant governor have been nothing but helpful,” Baxter said of Legislative support for the project. “They stepped up to the plate.”

District 3 Madison County Supervisor Gerald Steen said he too was grateful to state legislators for support of the project.

“They have been very helpful …,” Steen said. “They have been very helpful on the Reunion Interchange as well in the past.”

Once complete, the project will match the Highland Colony Parkway, Baxter said.

“We are going to have lights in the middle, and we are also going to have a walking trail on the left side and then we are going to do some capacity improvements from Reunion to the Gluckstadt turn lane.

We are going to improve the intersections with more through lanes and longer turn lanes at Gluckstadt and Bozeman.”

“It is $10 million per mile to widen that road. It is 3.2 miles so it will be $32 million total,” Baxter said. “We don’t have the money to do the whole thing, but we are going on and buying the right-of-way, for the future. We are going to keep going back to the Legislature each and every year and get more money.”

Baxter said he also is hopeful that some of Madison County’s $20,610,800 in federal COVID-19 Rescue funds could go toward the project, and he is applying for a federal BUILD grant for the project. 

Baxter said the design work is complete and the county has purchased 45 of 55 rights-of-way parcels needed for the project.

“There are a whole lot of utilities to move including power poles,” Baxter said. “We are going to start moving utilities and hopefully go to construction in January of next year, which will create a traffic armageddon when we get started digging that road up.”

The sacrifice, he said, should be worth the effort.