New grant will improve HWY 182 in Starkville

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Hwy 182 in Starkville is getting a make-over.

The City of Starkville was approved for a $12.66 million grant to make improvements along Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. East.

The money will go towards things like improving the drainage system, adding sidewalks, and moving utility lines underground.

Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill said the city has applied for the federal grant for a number of years.

“If you look at all these overhead power lines, those will come down. Those are an impediment to economic development. Nobody really wants to be around this huge vast array of power lines. That’s an example. We’ll improve pedestrian access. You see now, we don’t have a sidewalk on one side of the road, so this will cause those things to happen. Go up here to the next corner, and you’ll see that we’ve got storm drain issues. We’ve got a storm pipe that has collapsed, so these are the kinds of things that we can make better,” said Spruill.

Spruill said the goal is to have the project completed within the next two or three years.