Choctaw awarded $2.9 million for new access road
ACKERMAN, Miss. (WCBI) – Choctaw County is one of three recipients of an inaugural forestry grant. The money will help fund a plan to ease traffic and improve safety on Highway 12.
If you’ve ever been on Highway 12 in Ackerman, you know the headache it can be.
Log trucks, 18-wheelers, and dump trucks entering Southeastern Timber can cause a bottleneck for Choctaw County residents and commuters.
But drivers will soon be getting a little relief on the road.
A new access road is in the works.
Choctaw County was awarded $2.9 million from the Forestry Facility Grant Program.
The program was created by the state legislature in 2025 and is for infrastructure and transportation projects.
“This will be a public road that will also allow access into the mill to relieve congestion along Highway 12 of truck traffic.”
Choctaw County Economic Development Director Randy Loper says the new access road will make travel safer. Because of where the mill sits on Highway 12, it creates a blind spot. One that has caused many accidents.
“This is definitely a safety issue. Even before the expansion, we’ve had situations where the trucks that are trying to turn left into the mill may be backed up 20-30 trucks backed up on Highway 12 coming back toward town. And particularly where its location is, someone comes over that hill and then there’s a long line of trucks, we’ve had accidents,” he says.
Loper says this is not only a safety issue, but it also is a time saver for drivers and logging companies alike.
“In addition, with having the new entrance with the trucks not having to wait as long to load and unload, that allows those truckers to get back out to the forestry sites where they can get loaded quicker with new loads of timber and unloaded, so that’s time saving.”
Loper thanks the Choctaw County Board of Supervisors throughout this process and Southeastern Timber Products.
