Sometimes progress is painful.

Take for instance the past year of repair work on the Mississippi River bridge between Natchez and Vidalia.

Instead of the four lanes of traffic — two westbound and two eastbound on two spans of bridges — resident have had two lanes on one span of traffic throughout the duration of the project.

While most days during the construction project traffic flowed pretty smoothly, sometimes traffic would get congested and back up for more than a mile, especially if an accident occurred on the bridge.

The westbound bridge span re-opened one lane of traffic about a month ago and one lane of the eastbound span is now closed for repairs.

Having two lanes on two spans of bridges has somewhat alleviated the congestion problem but the traffic flow is still not up to full capacity.

Travelers should not have to wait much longer, however, for the spans to be in full operation and to be accommodating to peak traffic levels.

Don’t get too excited, though.

Now we learn that sometime after Christmas, perhaps May or June, Carter Street in Vidalia is slated for a 2 3/4-mile paving project starting at the foot of the bridge on the Vidalia side and stretching to the Vidalia Walmart.

The construction project will likely back traffic up at peak traffic times again on both sides of the bridge throughout the anticipated two-month project.

Like we said, progress can sometimes be painful.

But we love progress, and we are sure the pain will be worth the duration.

Once the project is complete, it will be smooth sailing on both sides of the river, and just in time to accommodate two new industrial projects in Vidalia — Syrah Research and Vidalia Denim.

Now that’s something to be excited about.