With schools in the Lamar County School District closed for Spring Break from March 11 to 22, contractors working on Old Highway 11 in Oak Grove have scheduled an increase in crews and activity on the ongoing paving project along that highway.
Lamar County administrator Jody Waits said in the absence of school traffic, the contractor has asked to work longer days, which could lead to one-way closures, detours and delays during workday hours throughout that period.
“The impacts to traffic will vary throughout each day as the crews maneuver the project limits,” Waits said. “Access to local businesses and residents will be always available; however, delays may be encountered depending on the exact location of work that is taking place.
To reduce traffic in this area, please consider utilizing alternate routes for your commute each day and be alert to detours that the contractor has in place and/or flagman in place for traffic control.”
Plans for the work began in early 2018, when Lamar County officials announced a project to widen a 1.2-mile section of Old Highway 11 and add a multi-use pathway along that stretch of road. The $4.3 million project, which is being overseen by Hattiesburg consulting firm Walker Associates, also entails a third lane on Old Highway 11, running from 16th Section Road to Old Highway 24.
The 10-foot-wide multi-use pathway, which will accommodate pedestrian and bicycle traffic, begins on Old Highway 24 near Oak Grove Middle School before turning north on Old Highway 11 and stopping at 16thSection Road.
In the past few weeks, workers have widened the current roadbed along Old Highway 11 and installed the cross drains, curbs and gutters, along with continuing work on the pathway.
“Most of the preliminary work is completed, so now they’re doing basically the base coat of asphalt,” Waits said. “While school is out for the next two weeks, that gives us a window where traffic is not nearly as bad, although it’s still a very busy area.
“I think we’re coming along very well; the contractor has done an outstanding job. We’ve managed to keep traffic flowing through that area at all times, with the exception of a couple of days on Saturdays when we had to shut down certain sections of it as we cut across the road to put in the cross drains. But we were able to divert traffic around the construction area.”
Despite some of the headaches that may have been caused by the work, Waits said the improvements will serve the area well upon completion, which is expected to take place within the next couple of months.
“We’re well pleased, and I think the citizens will be pleased with how it turns out,” he said. “We appreciate them bearing with us through this construction.
In early 2018, officials began the process of acquiring land along that strip of Old Highway 11, which contains 68 parcels of property and sees about 16,000 vehicles per day. The project then entered the utility relocation phase, after which the Lamar County Board of Supervisors put construction of the project out to bid.
In March of that year, a public hearing was held at the Oak Grove Community Center, during which residents were able to voice concerns and ask questions about the project. Although some attendees raised complaints about the multi-use pathway, saying the addition would be too costly and not necessary – given the lack of foot traffic along Old Highway 11 – Waits said the pathway would be ideal for the community.
“Although some of the concerns were that we don’t see the foot traffic and we don’t see the bicycles, quite frankly we don’t see them because there’s nowhere for them to go,” he said at the meeting. “And these are some of the amenities that we hear that people want – recreational facilities, a place to walk, a place to bike, a place that connects two schools.
“Considering all the development in this area, like several subdivisions … there’s quite a bit of people that would use this path.”
