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Published: Aug 20, 2008 - 03:35:46 pm CDT
Group urges legislators to Get SMART on roads n Mission is to accelerate road construction in the state. By Mack Spencer Monitor-Herald CALHOUN CITY - Bill Renick attributes much of Mississippi’s recent industrial recruitment success to one thing. “The AHEAD (highway) program was the most successful public works program in the history of the state,” Renick told the Calhoun City Rotary Club last week. “We probably would not have had the successes we have, like PACCAR and Severcorr, without it.” Because of that, Renick - a former Ashland mayor and state senator, and currently the head of the Three Rivers workforce initiative - sees the Vision 21 plan as vital to the state’s continued success. As the president of Get SMART (Start Mississippi’s Approved Roads Today), Renick is boosting not only construction and improvement of the roads in Vision 21, but new ways for the state to finance the work. In fact, he and the Get SMART board of 120 from around the state think someone else will finance the work on some of the most needed and highly trafficked routes. Key to that idea is getting the legislature to approve public-private partnerships that would allow companies to collect tolls for up to 50 years in return for their investment in totally constructing and then maintaining those roads, such as U.S. 49 from Jackson to the Coast. At the end of the agreed period, the state would regain possession and maintenance responsibility. The private financing of certain roads would free up more of the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s funds for still-important but secondary routes - an important consideration, as construction costs on paving have risen from $1 million per mile for much of the AHEAD program to a low of $7 million per mile. The upper limit can be as much as $15 million per mile. Get SMART started as a subcommittee of the Commission on the Future of Northeast Mississippi, but the group was quickly expanded, due to the political reality of needing the support of legislators from across the state. The Vision 21 map shows roads of immediate, medium-range and long-term concern. “Highway 15 is the top priority by traffic count,” Renick said. That road runs from the Tennessee line north of Walnut, around Houston, to south of Laurel. It awaits completion there to the Gulf Coast - a piece of 15 has been completed from Biloxi to east of Wiggins - and four-laning of the entire length. Calhoun County has only prospective additions of passing lanes on Highways 9 and 9 West shown on the Vision 21 map, Renick said quicker completion of other roads, with the help of the private companies, could push roads like Highway 8 up the ladder of importance. “We want to beef up the inside of Mississippi,” Renick said. “Not everything can be on U.S. 78 or I-55. Places like Calhoun City and Ashland are as deserving as any other places.”
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