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NATCHEZ — In the 20 years since county officials started looking at widening and digging new drainage canals on Morgantown Road, one thing they haven’t considered is the impact on underground water lines.

Unfortunately, some of these lines will have to be moved, which could add another three years to the project, said Adams County Board of Supervisors President Warren Gaines.

“When I came here in 2020, we had no money for Morgantown Road,” Gaines said during Monday’s meeting. “With our collaborative efforts (with the City of Natchez) I think we got up to about $4.7 million. We got to the end where we were getting ready to get started and the utilities had not been checked. You see the flags on Morgantown right now, those are water and sewer. The water lines themselves will need to be moved and they’re saying it can take up to three years to move the water lines and approximately $500,000 to move them.”

Gaines and Mayor Dan Gibson said they had a meeting with IMS Engineers, the county’s contracted engineering firm, and discussed moving forward with minor drainage work in the areas with the worst drainage issues while lobbying efforts for Morgantown Road continue.

Officials also are working against inflation to get the project under cost, Gibson said Tuesday.

“We have right now a little over $4 million in the project,” he said. “Phase 1 involves a lot of drainage and it is still pending Mississippi Department of Transportation approval. We bid (Phase 2) a couple of times. That is the portion of the road between Dixie and Red Loop roads. Unfortunately, Phase 2 has come in both times over our budgeted amount and we had to reject those bids.”

Gibson said bids being over budget was already an issue before water lines were brought to his attention. To worsen the matter, $1 million of the funds for the project are budgeted from city American Rescue Plan Act funds that have to be obligated by next summer, Gibson said.

IMS was looking at “possible redesign options that would bring the cost down and allow us to get this done,” he said. “In their analysis, they discovered underground water lines belonging to Adams County Water Association that would have to be moved that could add as much as $500,000 to the project and bring about a serious delay when we’re already short on funds. …

“The entire project needs to be under $4 million and if it can’t (get to that cost) then we have to go back to the drawing board and find more money on the state and federal level. Inflation has not been on our side.”

Gaines echoed the same concerns during Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

“I just felt like the people suffered enough out there,” Gaines said. “If it’s $3.3 million, then $7 million now, I feel like in another three years it’ll be $10 million.”

George Ford of IMS Engineers said they would come back to the board with some “plan adjustments” to immediately address the drainage issue and still use available funds to repave the road.

“We have some options in place to present to the hydraulics team and we’ll make the modification to the plans and present it to the board at that time,” Ford said.

Supervisor Kevin Wilson agreed the drainage issue on Morgantown Road is dire and, “something needs to be done sooner rather than later.”

The county has already started repaving a portion of the road outside the drainage problem area from Second Street to Myrtle Drive in a separate countywide $8 million pavement project.

The widening, drainage and resurfacing project begins in the area of the CVS to Second Street.