Literally Bridging The Gap

CLAY COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s no secret, many roads and bridges in the country and our state need repairing.

Now, there’s a success story. A two-year project in Clay County is almost complete.

“The supervisor can’t tell the contractor, ‘Look! you need to open this road back up.’ That’s what I would love to do and have tried to do it ain’t going to happen,” said Clay County District 4 Supervisor Shelton Deanes.

The fight to reopen this bridge on Lake Grove Road has been a two-year battle.

Deanes says although the work is almost complete, there are a few obstacles in the way of clear passage.

“Once we let a contract it’s no longer a county road or the county bridge, it belongs to the contractor. Once the contractor comes back to the engineer and say the contract is completed then the engineer will inspect the project. If he accepts the project then he’ll bring the project back to the board and says, ‘Look guys, this is a finished product.’ Then the board will accept the county road and bridge back into the road register. Then it belongs to the county,” said Deanes.

Mother nature hasn’t been cooperative either, leaving the ground too wet for crews.

Pamela Pulley lives a few miles away from the bridge, making it her primary route in and out of the area.

“It’s been difficult. We have to go to Siloam Water out on highway 50 to pay our water bill. Now, I have to go all the way into West Point, on 45 or either I have to go all the way around on Highway 47 around by the line place to go just to pay my water bill,”said Pulley.

That’s about 30 additional miles for Pulley to drive.

Her home, along with 50 others, have been left to find new routes. The rural Clay County residents impacted are also worried about their safety.

“If there’s an emergency, if the ambulance comes out. That’s a long way for them to have to come from where they are at all the way down 45 verses if they could have come down 50 and come straight on through Siloam and then they’re here,” said Pulley.

Pulley is thankful the bridge will soon be open.

“It’s come a long way since I saw it and I guess they’re going to put the asphalt down but now the bridge one thing I can say is it’s there so it’s going to be there now. We won’t have to worry about being out of our way any more,” said Pulley.

Deanes believes the project will continue when there’s a good stretch of warm dry weather. He hopes everything is wrapped up by May.