Vision 21

Updates

Background

Vision 21 is the Mississippi Department of Transportation's proposal to better prioritize construction of the fourth phase of the 1987 Four Lane Highway Program and other projects (including the Gaming Roads Program). Vision 21 also includes a number of "special projects" that MDOT would be unable to build without special federal funding, such as the construction of I-69 through the Mississippi Delta and a freeway upgrade of the U.S. 49 corridor between Jackson and the Gulf Coast. No significant work is expected on these projects until the first three phases of the Four Lane Highway Program are complete in 2006.

The plan is divided into three phases, dependent on projected congestion on the specified routes:

The cost of the projects (not including the "special projects") would be approximately $3.6 billion, funded by an extension of the gas tax set aside for the Four Lane Highways program, as well as the diversion of some Gaming Roads Program funds to other Vision 21 projects.

Projects

A map [PDF; 2.1 MB] of the routes planned for upgrades is available from MDOT's web site. The routes slated for improvement are listed below, according to the January 7 revision:

Note that these projects do not include projects that are in the first three phases of the Four Lane Highway Program but are not yet built. MDOT plans to complete those previous phases in the near future (Phase I is already complete).

Notable Omissions

Vision 21 does not try to prioritize the following projects required by other statutes. Their current status is unknown; the statutes are not repealed by either the House or Senate bill.

However, the MS 8 and MS 25 projects above are authorized by miscellaneous statutes (code sections 65-3-207 and 65-3-137, respectively).

Other notable omissions:

Disclaimer

These pages are completely unofficial. The author is not affiliated with any transportation agency. Information is presented for informational purposes only, is derived from publically-available sources, and its accuracy is not guaranteed. In addition, some information presented (usually obvious from its context) is the opinion of the author.

Links


Chris Lawrence <chris@lordsutch.com> (24 May 2002 at 08:55 CDT)