MDOT closes Miss. 42 at State Line
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River erosion around pilings causes two bridges to be shut down
From Staff Reports
Greene County residents have endured several bridge closures on county routes over the past year, now those who traverse near State Line will have to experience that burden on a main highway.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) has closed two bridges on Miss. 42 just west of State Line. In a statement released just after 9 a.m. Tuesday, MDOT said bridges 107.7 and 107.9 over the Chickasawhay River are being closed to traffic indefinitely and that residents and commuters should find an alternate route across the river.
“The river has washed away large amounts of sediment around the bridge pilings and exposed the bridge support to a point where the bridge needs to be closed until engineers can make repairs,” the MDOT statement said.
Barricades are in place to prevent vehicles from crossing the bridges. No official detour routes are in place at this time, but MDOT officials said detour signage will be erected in the coming weeks.
The announcement marks the second time in as many months MDOT has initiated the bridge closures. On Jan. 24 MDOT announced the closure of the highway at the river only to change course roughly an hour later, saying that MDOT officials had decided against the move.
According to an email from MDOT Public Affairs at that time, “the inspectors, district engineers and bridge engineers met just now to evaluate the reports (and) decided to reopen the bridge, but will be doing daily inspections of the sediment. Water is still rising on the river and may require closing in the coming days.”