U.S. 49 is a north-south highway that runs between Piggott, Arkansas, and Gulfport, Mississippi. The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) and general contractor Necaise Brothers are widening a section of U.S. 49 in Harrison County, Mississippi.
More specifically, the section of U.S. 49 is just north of Gulfport, the southern terminus of the road. Gulfport, which is situated on the Gulf Coast, is the second-largest city in Mississippi. The Gulfport-Biloxi metropolitan area is home to over 400,000 residents.
U.S. 49 is one of southern Mississippi's most critical highways. The average daily traffic on the highway in 2024 was north of 25,000. Forecasters project the traffic count will grow as the area attracts more residents and businesses.
The highway also serves as a hurricane evacuation route. Gulfport and Harrison County are areas that were heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The city's Grand Casino barge was decimated by the hurricane, as were major buildings, including the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport.
Storm surges along the Mississippi Gulf Coast were measured at nearly 30 feet. The storm resulted in more than $200 billion in damage when adjusted for today’s dollars, according to the National Center for Environmental Information, and it claimed the lives of 172 people in the state.
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"Since Katrina, lots of residents have relocated north of I-10," said Noah Pearson, an MDOT Project Engineer who is overseeing the project for the state.
Nearby Harrison Central High School also significantly impacts the roadway. The school's student body numbers 1,500.
"Traffic to and from school when the day begins and ends leaves the road congested," Pearson said. "Backups and delays at the intersection are common."
Because of backups and other issues, MDOT is taking steps to alleviate congestion and increase traffic capacity. Since congestion impacts safety, MDOT believes that the project will enhance safety in the corridor.
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The primary step MDOT is taking to increase capacity is widening U.S. 49 from four to six lanes. The team is adding one northbound lane and one southbound lane from School Road to O’Neal Road. The extra lane will run for 3 miles. MDOT determined this area needed the extra lane to accommodate both existing traffic and anticipated population growth in the area.
State Route 53, a nearly 40-mile-long highway that runs between Gulfport and Poplarville, marks a significant intersection within the project area where the team will install a “displaced left-turn intersection,” or “continuous flow intersection,” the first of its kind in the state.
The new intersection design will replace the traditional four-way signalized intersection currently in place. With a large amount of traffic turning left at this intersection during peak times, the new intersection design will optimize traffic flow for left-turning traffic and minimize delays for all motorists at the intersection.
According to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, a continuous flow intersection (CFI) "moves left-turning vehicles from the main intersection to a separate roadway that runs parallel to the main lanes. This design allows for more green time for the major traffic flows."
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Continuous flow intersections are designed to increase capacity and reduce delays by keeping traffic moving more smoothly. This design separates left-turns from through traffic, allowing multiple traffic streams to move simultaneously. Compared with conventional intersections, this approach helps reduce congestion.
"The CFI is a good showcase of the state's willingness to implement innovation and infrastructure design to ease the congestion and improve the flow," Pearson said.
Other project elements include installation of a frontage road on the northbound side of U.S. 49. Running less than 1 mile long, the frontage road will relocate the existing access points of Collins Boulevard to better accommodate the design and construction of the displaced left-turn intersection at U.S. 49 and SR 53.
The team is also improving drainage in the project area to more efficiently direct water away from the highway. The addition of two lanes requires ditch lines to be moved. In an area of the country with frequent rainfall, regular thunderstorms, and expansive soils, drainage improvements are an important component to motorists’ safety.
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The team is installing Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) on the route.
"We're replacing all the pole foundations, and we're going to be updating all the traffic signal equipment on the poles," Pearson said. “Recently, during a traffic signal repair project, we moved the traffic signal poles to accommodate the continuous flow design. With this project, more poles and upgraded signal equipment are required.”
Once the team paves the additional lanes, they will come back and overlay the entire project.
Soil conditions are among the greatest unknowns in construction. Teams may be uncertain of how the soil will react until they are on site performing construction.
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On the U.S. 49 project, Pearson said that the unexpected soil conditions have been the team's biggest challenge so far. The poor soil conditions were not entirely unexpected, but the degree of them has been.
"We've encountered highly expansive soils, and they're not suitable for foundations for the roadbed," Pearson said. "So, we've had to excavate a lot and bring in more suitable materials in attempts to achieve stabilization."
As of this writing, the team has moved approximately 300,000 cubic yards of dirt.
Another challenge the team has run into is maintaining access to nearby businesses and residences.
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"Throughout the construction process, we've been doing pretty well planning our traffic control out and coordinating," Pearson said. "We contact the local businesses and residents to coordinate with them and ensure we maintain access to their property."
In addition, before beginning construction, the team installed barriers to ensure proper entrance and treatment widths.
There are also occasional nighttime lane closures.
"We're trying not to do any lane closures during the day to avoid inconveniencing drivers. ... The farther south you go on U.S. 49, the more traffic," Pearson said. "At some point, it just seems safer to do lane closures at night."
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This is the only night work the team has performed.
Necaise Brothers Construction Company of Gulfport submitted the low bid and won the project. The general contractor has recently begun working on MDOT projects.
Pearson worked on a project with Necaise Brothers recently and said that they “identified problems and helped us proactively plan where the plans needed to change."
It is also beneficial that the company's headquarters is in close proximity to the project.
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"It makes their mobilization cheaper, so it saves tax dollars," Pearson said.
The project's construction budget is $44.9 million. Pearson expects the final tally to be slightly above the original estimate due to greater-than-anticipated soil excavation and disposal.
In 2023, the Mississippi Legislature appropriated nearly $1.5 billion to MDOT, as well as a $620 million supplemental appropriation. A press release from MDOT noted that the extra $620 million would be "spent on major construction projects, emergency road and bridge repair, and multimodal projects such as ports, rail, and airports."
MDOT’s press release also said that "for several years, MDOT focused largely on maintenance projects instead of major construction projects due to lack of funding and rising costs. Funding from the 2023 Legislative Session will allow MDOT to embark on several major capacity projects that will increase safety, alleviate congestion, and help grow Mississippi's economy."
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MDOT listed eight projects that received funding because of the supplemental appropriation, among them the U.S. 49 widening project in Harrison County.
The state is contributing 20 percent of the construction budget, and the federal government is contributing the remaining 80 percent.
Construction on the project began in early spring 2024 and was scheduled to conclude in 2026, or 500 working days later. Due to the additional work required for soil rehabilitation, the project is a bit behind schedule.
Upon completion of the project, the corridor will experience less congestion and more reliable drive times, thanks to increased capacity. In addition, the continuous flow intersection will optimize left-hand turns. Both remedies will improve safety in the corridor. Finally, the widening will allow residents to feel more confident that they can leave the area faster via the hurricane evacuation route.
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- Owner/Engineer: Mississippi Department of Transportation
- General Contractor: Necaise Brothers Construction Company, Gulfport, Mississippi
- Designer: Stantec and Brown, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Mitchell & Alexander, Gulfport, Mississippi
- Other Contractors: A-1 Sealing Inc., Richton, Mississippi; J.L. McCool Contractors Inc., Escatawpa, Mississippi; Memphis Road Boring Co. Inc., Memphis, Tennessee; Machado-Patano PLLC, Biloxi, Mississippi; Simmons Erosion Control Inc., Lake, Mississippi; R & W Electric Co., Collinsville, Mississippi; Hub City Concrete LLC, Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Accurate Coring & Sawing LLC, Waveland, Mississippi; Atwood Fence Company Inc., Kosciusko, Mississippi; Warren Paving, Hattiesburg, Mississippi
