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NATCHEZ — Natchez Community Development Director James Johnston said the city would like to move forward with a scaled-down approach to lighting the Natchez-Vidalia bridges.

Mayor Dan Gibson has made returning the decorative lighting to the bridges a pet project, but it has stagnated because the costs are exorbitant.

A $3 million project between the Town of Vidalia, the Louisiana Department of Transportation, and the Mississippi Department of Transportation began in 2009 and was completed in 2010. The project provided aesthetic lighting to the bridges. Those lights shined to the delight of many until 2018, when work began to repair and repaint the bridges.

At that time, a spokesman for MDOT, Jas N. Smith, said the lights were removed when the bridge construction began and were found to be in poor condition. He said they would not be replaced.

“About 70 percent of the lights need to be repaired or replaced due to the level of vibration from traffic on the metal bridge structure,” Smith said in May 2018. “Repairs would also have to be made to much of the wiring of the lights.”

In 2022, the Mississippi Legislature, at the urging of Lt. Gov. Delbert Hoseman, provided $500,000 to the bridge lighting project.

Johnston explained that the city is contracted for the project with Volkert Engineering, and plans are now in place to determine whether the existing wiring and light fixtures would be sufficient to light the bridges with new, long-life bulbs.

Johnston said if the project is possible, the lights would be turned off for several weeks each spring and fall during the bird migration period. They would shine beginning at dusk and would turn off at 10 p.m.

“We are so grateful to the state legislature and especially to Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann for the funds for the lights. He pulled me aside recently and asked for an update on the bridge lights,” Gibson said. “He said we need to spend that money because other cities are in line for projects and he would hate to see it go elsewhere.”

The new project would ascertain the condition of the existing wiring to determine whether the bridge needs to be rewired for new lights.

“We are going to let this be our step forward with phase one. Of course, we have a ways to go. For the record, the state of Mississippi stepped up with this money and we are ready for Louisiana to step up and get its funding in place. We have been hopeful for the last four years that Louisiana would come up with some funding for the bridge lighting project, but we have not to date seen that check. Please know that we will be reaching out for that,” Gibson said.