NATCHEZ &045; If you have not been down Government Fleet Road lately, you haven’t been there at all, said local officials associated with improvement of the artery.

The $1.926 million project will include widening the road from 22 feet to 26 feet, straightening severe curves and installing storm drains. A new road also will be built to nearby Joiner Street Extension.

Georgetown Construction crews have cleared trees and are moving dirt to create a path for the new roadway, said City Engineer David Gardner.

Power lines have been relocated, and some drainage pipe has been installed as part of the project, which was started in October.

Construction of the road itself will probably start this summer, once dirt work is completed.

That will be followed by relocation of natural gas lines and the nearby Mississippi Valley Gas substation, and construction of the nearby connecting road.

The improvements will make the road, which heavy trucks travel frequently on the way to the Natchez-Adams Port, safer for both motorists and pedestrians, and there will be better access to adjacent neighborhoods, Gardner said.

Such infrastructure improvements will work to boost economic development, said Darryl Grennell, newly-elected vice president of the Adams County Board of Supervisors.

&uot;We need this (project) to make sure we enhance the port&uot; for industry, Grennell said.

The project is being paid for with a $1.5 million state Department of Transportation grant, a $286,000 grant from the Department of Economic and Community Development, $85,000 from Adams County and $55,000 from the city.

The work was supposed to start in late spring or early summer.

But working out details on the relocation of a natural gas substation and power lines, and the taking of three parcels of land by eminent domain by the city delayed the project.