Morgantown Road project advances while Silver Street work stalled

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Long-delayed construction work for Morgantown Road that’s been beset by inflated costs is expected to begin soon after Natchez officials decided to put off plans for rebuilding Silver Street and rebudget its money to advance Morgantown.

Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson, city aldermen and Adams County supervisors have been struggling to come up with the needed funds for Morgantown Road. Inflation has caused construction costs to soar above the federal, state and local funds cobbled together the past couple of years to improve the busy thoroughfare, which runs from north Natchez into the county near U.S. 61.

Dozer construction company in May submitted a $3.1 million bid for the drainage-improvement work, which Gibson has said was subject to negotiations to lower the cost. To ensure enough money is available to move forward with the Morgantown Road project, the mayor said in July he and the Board of Aldermen decided “to put another major project on the back burner: the raising of Silver Street. It came down to a difficult choice, and we had to choose Morgantown Road.”

It’s been Natchez-Adams County officials’ top priority for many years to widen a one-mile stretch of the much-traveled, treacherous Morgantown Road and improve drainage so it won’t flood during heavy rains.

Plans have also been made for raising Silver Street since 2020 with money secured for the multimillion-dollar project to protect the historic Natchez Under-the-Hill district from Mississippi River floods. While Gibson said in June it’s a “shovel-ready” project, it’s been stalled by protracted negotiations between city officials and the Biglane family that owns property along Silver Street. 

The mayor also noted higher-than-expected costs were also an impediment as the city faced an August deadline for contracting out $1 million the state Department of Environmental Quality allocated to Natchez in federal funds two years ago for Silver Street.

Silver Street funds will now be used for the Morgantown drainage-improvement project about to get underway on a section that runs from U.S. 61 to near Red Loop Road.

While the project will bring long-sought improvements, the roadwork could cause a traffic “nightmare” while construction is underway, said Adams County board President Kevin Wilson.

“People are going to have to be patient. It’s going to take awhile. It’s going to be messy,” he said.

A separate phase of the project yet to be contracted is to widen and repave Morgantown Road .

Natchez and Adams County received $2.4 million appropriated by the U.S. Congress in 2022 for the road’s reconstruction and nearly $900,000 in federal funds distributed by the state for drainage improvements.

Contractors’ construction proposals submitted last year were too expensive and had to be rejected. Engineering plans were then revised to reduce costs.