Tuesday, May 09, 2006

What Next? - 5/9/2006

All roads lead to ill will


Transit battles the toughest


By DON HAMMACK
dthammack@sunherald.com

The Sun Herald is planning a series of reports on the Governor's Commission and its progress over the next two weeks. The series started on Sunday May 7th, and will go on until May 18th. Read each article here.




Transportation concerns in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have set off a string of confrontations between locals and MDOT.

Some of the Governor's Commission recommendations were direct challenges to the way the state transportation agency has operated. For instance, efforts by Ocean Springs to tame MDOT's bigger-is-better mantra for the U.S. 90 bridge over Biloxi Bay stewed for months.

The city gave approval for a bridge with six lanes of traffic, four breakdown or emergency lanes and a bike/pedestrian lane. Then it took it away, then gave it back again when it became clear there would be no downsizing.

A later hiccup with the lack of a drawbridge resulted in rebidding the project for a 95-foot bridge, 10 feet higher to help appease protests from Harrison County development officials, the shipbuilding industry along Bayou Bernard Industrial Seaway and the governor's office. A contract is to be awarded early next month.

The commission didn't want to put itself in the middle of an obvious political struggle, but the Mississippi Renewal Forum had argued for a four-lane bridge. Instead, the commission recommended returning U.S. 90 to a four-lane, pedestrian-friendly boulevard.

It also recommended the acquisition of the CSX Transportation rail bed for conversion into an east-west thoroughfare. The funding for the acquisition stands as a lightning rod in an emergency spending package that's been approved by the Senate but still needs House approval. If passed, the bill could be President Bush's first veto.

The commission's vision of a multimodal east-west corridor isn't being talked about in the same terms anymore, either. Instead, it's likely to wind up as a new U.S. 90 that can be rerouted off the beach.

"We would just love it if everybody would say instead of a major highway, this needs to be rapid transit, this needs to be light-rail," said Susan Henderson, a New Urbanist involved in the Renewal Forum and later in recovery planning. "It does need to connect New Orleans to Mobile."

Gulfport won a concession from MDOT in its plans for a Canal Road connector. Also referred to as Interstate 310, it would connect the state port of Gulfport to I-10 just east of the current Canal Road exit.

MDOT had federal approval to build an elevated connector all the way to the port, but with the Port Authority, city officials and business leaders armed with new ammunition from the commission, it earned a reprieve. The agency has agreed to do the project in two stages, postponing design south of 28th Street so it can weigh changes at the port and with CSX.

MDOT has also been active with development of two long-range transportation plans. It's worked with Coast Transit Authority and the feds to develop a public transportation vision, and with Gulf Regional Planning Commission for a regional multimodal plan.

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