Because of concerns regarding increased traffic that is expected to be brought to the Dixie community by the upcoming Love’s Travel Stop, Ira Hudson Road will soon be widened to three lanes near the intersection of Elks Lake Road.
Preliminary work on the project is expected to begin June 3, and Ira Hudson Road will be closed starting June 10 for an undetermined period of time.
“Of course, with the truck stop, there’s going to be 18-wheelers turning in off of Elks Lake Road onto Ira Hudson, and then turning into the Love’s truck stop,” Forrest County road manager Kyle Mims said. “So (Ira Hudson Road) will be a two-lane with a turn lane (for a total of three lanes), for the trucks and the traffic coming off the interstate to Love’s truck stop.”
Depending on weather and other circumstances, Ira Hudson Road is expected to be closed for approximately a week while the work commences, and officials are asking motorists to plan ahead to take alternate routes during that time.
“As long as we get some decent weather and it doesn’t rain on them, it won’t delay the project,” Mims said. “But no one can (determine) that.
“Warren Paving is doing all the work … and we’ve met with them, and they know how important it is to get this done and get the road back open. They’re going to do a lot of work with one lane open, and then some of the work has to be done with the whole road closed.”
The work will be completed at no cost to the taxpayers of Forrest County, as officials from Love’s Travel Stop have picked up the bill the project.
Although several residents of Dixie attended many meetings of the Forrest County Board of Supervisors last year to voice their opposition to the truck stop, that facility is currently under construction at the intersection of Ira Hudson and Elks Lake roads.
“The facility is about built, and I was not involved in the initial startup,” said Terri Bell, president of the Forrest County Board of Supervisors. “(Love’s) is going to be a neighbor now, and we need to embrace that and do the best we can with what we’ve got.”
Several residents of the Homestead Ridge community in Dixie brought up matters such as crime drug use and other safety concerns they thought would be brought in by the truck stop, but officials said because there are no zoning stipulations in the county, there were no measures they could take to stop the facility from coming to the area. The Homestead group formed the “No Love for Love’s in Dixie” Facebook page and hired attorney Michael Adelman to represent them in their fight against the truck stop.
“Dixie is one of the oldest communities outside of Hattiesburg, and it’s centered around (Dixie Attendance Center),” Adelman said at a board meeting. “Contrary to statements that we’ve heard from Love’s, we believe that the construction of a truck stop … would essentially destroy the essence of Dixie.
“The community has always thrived on being a safe, healthy community. We all know there’s a drug crisis in the United States, and we all know the preferred method of transporting drugs across the border from Mexico – and throughout the United States – is trucking.”
