NATCHEZ — After 13 years and several revisions to the original plan, supervisors say the county’s Morgantown Road project might be ready to move forward in June.

Hayden Kaiser, principal of JKS Engineer Surveyors, said Monday in the board of supervisors meeting that a 3-D rendering of the anticipated revisions to the road are available for public input.

The 3-D model, Kaiser said, should ease some fears community members have that the road will consume too much private land on either side.

The project began four years after 18-year-old crossing guard Casey Schrock was killed at the intersection of Morgantown and Booker roads in 2001.

The project began with a traffic study in 2005 and a plan to add a turn lane onto Morgantown Road to lessen heavy school-time traffic.

The county began acquiring rights-of-way access on the road in 2009, but had difficulties.
“One of the reasons this has taken so long is because we’re designing around so many existing utilities,” Kaiser said.

Another reason, Kaiser said, is because the plan has changed.

Instead of addressing Morgantown’s intersections, the project now includes all of Morgantown Road between Booker and Redd Loop roads.

The originally proposed turning lanes were cut from the plan in 2017 after residents on the road objected to the amount of land that would be consumed from their properties.

The project now focuses instead on drainage work and the road.

Supervisor Ricky Gray said Monday that residents continue to ask him about the project, which he said has gone on so long that no one believes it will be completed.

“Everywhere I go, I’m getting beat up about Morgantown,” Gray said. “Do we have a timeline?”
One of the primary hold-ups, Kaiser said, was getting rights-of-way access for the construction.

Legally, a right-of-way, Kaiser said, differs greatly from easement.
Right-of-way is the land sold or donated to the county for the construction of roads, pipes or other public utilities.

Easement, alternatively, is land the county modifies, but remains the property of the homeowner.

In this case, Kaiser said some easement projects may be to change the slope of hills or bluffs to alter the flow of water as a part of the drainage work.

“That property still belongs to the homeowner,” Kaiser said.

Gray said flags marking out easement and rights-of-way property is concerning to some residents who do not know how much land they will lose in the construction of the road.
The new 3-D model of the altered plan, Kaiser said, should relieve any worries residents may have about the county’s rights-of-way needs.

Board attorney Scott Slover said the goal now is to get the rights-of-way set by June, and then begin advertising a request for proposals for the construction.

“This is a major artery of the community and we have to do what have to do,” Slover said. “With the renditions, it’s going to be a first-class road. I think it’s really going to help.”

After the meeting, Gray said his question concerning a definite timeline for construction completion was not answered.

“Well,” Gray said, “I’ve been asking that as long as I’ve been here.”