The cost of expanding I-10 to six lanes from Diamondhead to Long Beach is 155 million. Charles Busby, the Southern District Transportation Commissioner, told that the I-10 corridor as a whole requires that attention.
“We need it from Louisiana to Alabama, all the way across Mississippi, we need to widen I-10,” he stated.
Harrison and Jackson counties already have six lanes on a significant section of the road. However, Busby stated that Gautier to the Alabama border is one location that needs to be widened in particular. But there is a problem with a Pascagoula road bottleneck.
“The Pascagoula River Bridge is gonna be a tremendous obstacle. It’s going to make that segment very expensive,” he stated.” I don’t know what the best idea is right now. Perhaps you build another two lane bridge and you pay a toll for it.”
In 2022, the Highway 90 bridge leading into Louisiana was closed by inspectors who declared it dangerous for traffic.
Legislators in Louisiana have previously stated that work on replacing the bridge may not start for up to five years since the state does not currently have the necessary funding.
Busby stated that the Mississippi Lottery is having a significant impact on paving and repairing roads and bridges as Louisiana looks into financial options.
“The lottery money was targeted tot he maintenance program, so we’re doing a lot of repaving on that. A lot of repaving that was done on Highway 49 was the result of lottery money.”
