Supervisors bid Bozeman construction
Gluckstadt Mayor Walter Morrison on Monday urged county supervisors to push forward with Phase II of the Bozeman Road widening project after a month of bickering over Phase I that begins in Madison.
“This issue is very important to the city,” Morrison told supervisors. “One thing is clearly without dispute, the worst traffic in Madison County lies within the city of Gluckstadt.”
Morrison said that lack of expansion over the years coupled with the addition of numerous subdivisions has created traffic nightmares and long lines of cars at peak times.
“I’m here on behalf of all of the people who live, work and travel through Gluckstadt and have to deal with that traffic every single day,” he said. “It’s only going to get worse. This is clearly in the best interest in the city of Gluckstadt, but more importantly, it’s in the best interest of Madison County.”
County supervisors have been split on where the Bozeman Road project should start, with several attempts over the last month by newly-seated District 1 Supervisor Casey Brannon asking to at least re-advertise Phase I bids to see how much it would cost. His attempts have failed multiple times.
Phase I would begin at Mississippi Highway 463 and run up to Reunion Parkway. Phase II begins at Reunion Parkway north to Gluckstadt Road.
District 2 Supervisor Trey Baxter has contended for over a month that Phase I is shovel-ready and should go out for bid, citing over seven years of environmental, design and right-of-way acquisitions. He said utility companies have also spent about $4 million to relocate utility lines.
The estimated cost for Phase I is $40 million and if started soon would be completed by early-to-mid 2026.
Phase II, with an estimated cost of $24 million, is now in the phase of purchasing right-of-way following a 3-2 vote by supervisors on Monday.
County Engineer Tim Bryan estimated it would take at least two years to purchase right-of-way and move utilities for that phase, allowing for construction to possibly begin in 2026.
Board President Gerald Steen, who publicly took issue with a previous article in the Madison County Journal saying he wanted to abandon Phase I in favor of Phase II, said he was in favor of both but was concerned about finances and how to fund the projects.
Last month, Steen said the real traffic problems were more concentrated in Gluckstadt and that Phase II was “100 percent in the county.”
Then, on Monday, after voting with fellow board members to re-advertise Phase I, he offered up two other motions to split the phase into different pieces, which passed 3-2 with support from District 4 Supervisor Karl Banks and District 5 Supervisor Paul Griffin.
“We have many capital projects out there,” Steen said. “Breaking them down into different sections gives us the opportunity to look financially what we have. I want to make one thing very clear for myself, I am for supporting Bozeman Road from the intersection at Gluckstadt to 463. My mind, my thoughts have never changed. It’s just a matter of how we gone finance it.”
Steen’s support for the Bozeman Road project has wavered in the past, though, despite what he said on Monday.
In April 2016, Steen supported Bozeman Road and was against Reunion Parkway Phase III. A month later, he didn’t want to commit to Bozeman Road until he saw a traffic study despite being told at the time there were over 17,000 cars per day on the road designed for 10,000 cars per day.
“At this point, I would love to see that traffic study plan,” he said in May 2016, before shifting his focus to Reunion Parkway Phase III which he previously wasn’t in support of.
A couple of months later, Steen said the traffic study was helpful and that they could spend a certain amount and shift money to other projects to move traffic.
In 2019, Steen said he was hoping to have Bozeman Road completed within the next two years so that the county could begin to focus on other projects.
“Traffic concerns are always one of our top priorities,” Steen said in 2019. “As that part of the county continues to grow, all of these projects fit together to help move traffic in the area.”
Bozeman has been wrought with delays since then and was finally advertised for construction last fall but the sole bid came back several million dollars over estimates.
Steen’s partial shift back to Phase I on Monday could have been a result of $7.5 million in state funding that officials told the county was for Phase I.
County Administrator Greg Higginbotham told supervisors last month that the money could be spent on any section of Bozeman Road.
On Monday, Higginbotham told supervisors he was told the contrary by unnamed state officials and recommended the money be earmarked for Phase I.
Before that announcement about the $7.5 million, Steen didn’t even want to entertain re-advertising Phase I.
Baxter and Brannon on Monday argued for the immediate construction of Phase I, saying it will provide relief in a couple of years and waiting for Phase II means no traffic relief until at least 2028.
Baxter then asked Bryan and Higginbotham to look at the possibility of borrowing to construct Phase I and Phase II, with the second phase beginning right after the first phase was completed.
Griffin said if the bonding capacity was there he would be for it because then the county could focus on Yandell Road problems.
“If we can afford and do it, do the whole thing at once,” he said. “If we can’t, we might have to do this section, this section and kick the other section down the road. I hope we can get together soon. Yandell Road needs improving. We fussing and disagreeing on Bozeman and Reunion is holding up the project I want to push through to get it going.”
Banks said he was “all for it” too, if the borrowing capacity was available.