“We’ll probably start working on Reunion this summer and be done by 2010,” he said. “We’re very optimistic that come summer or fall of 2010, we will have an interchange that relieves traffic in south Madison County.”
Central District Commissioner Dick Hall, after twice voting against approving the “Finding of No Significant Impact,” relented March 11 after he and county officials reached a compromise on construction of an interchange at Gluckstadt.
Federal law requires unanimous approval of the study.
“I look at this as a great day for Madison County,” Johnson said. “It’s a win-win-win for everyone involved. It’s a win for Commissioner Hall because he got a project he’s concerned about, and we get to move forward with Reunion for an east-west corridor.”
At the center of contention between Hall, county officials and Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler was whether an interchange at Reunion Parkway should be built, whether traffic was a bigger problem at Gluckstadt and whether taxes would be raised to pay for the work at Reunion.
“I just think we got to this point because Commissioner Hall is concerned about Gluckstadt,” Johnson said. “He wanted to see Gluckstadt move forward through his efforts, and we appreciate his hard work to get it moved up.”
MADISON COUNTY HAS built five lanes on the east side of the I-55 Gluckstadt interchange and plans to add three lanes on the west side. The state’s work on the overpass was set to begin in 2014, but commissioners’ approval of the FONSI was contingent upon moving up that project to 2010.
Supervisors “finally came around and agreed to what I wanted done, and that was to accelerate the Gluckstadt schedule by cutting it two to three years,” Hall said. “That still doesn’t make Reunion a project I wanted by the way they’re doing it. I reluctantly voted for the project.”
Phase 1 of the Reunion Parkway interchange created an east-west corridor from Mississippi 463 to Bozeman Road, and that section of road from Mississippi 463 to Madison Station School opened in January. Phase 2 would take the interchange from Bozeman to at least Parkway East, with Madison officials hoping to extend the road to U.S. 51 in Madison.
Butler, who has been critical of Hall’s opposition to the Reunion interchange, softened her tone after the March 11 vote.
“I say it’s a banner day for Madison County and the city of Madison, and we just need to move forward,” she said.
The commissioners’ approval calls for the “irrevocable advancement of the Gluckstadt interchange project on the MDOT Statewide Transportation Improvement Program so that the environmental evaluation process shall begin immediately, with a goal of producing an environmental document within 12 months from April 1, 2008.” Commissioners also mandated work on Gluckstadt should be “pursued without interruption, with a goal of completion within 15 months thereafter,” and that “MDOT staff shall provide detailed reports to the commission every six months regarding the progress” at Gluckstadt.
“The schedule cannot be altered unless by an affirmative vote by all three commissioners,” Hall said. “They can’t monkey with it without my permission.”
In Washington, officials are expected to approve the FONSI within 30 days, Johnson said.
“Then, we’re going to get the design plans for Reunion up to MDOT, and it will take 30 to 45 days to approve the design in Washington.”
Design work on Gluckstadt is expected to begin in about 12 months, Johnson said.
“That will take about another year and a half. Then, they will move forward and start construction on it. We’ll have two new interchanges in Madison County moving traffic and easing the burden on 463 and 51.”
ACCORDING TO MDOT, more than 17,000 travel Mississippi 463 each day. More than 42,000 travel U.S. 51 between Madison and Ridgeland to Gluckstadt every day.
About $38 million, with $6 million provided by MDOT, has been allocated for the Reunion interchange. Another $6 million has been offered by an unidentified private donor.
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