Quitman, Miss. (WTOK) – Today MDOT hosted a meeting that would help them decide the fate of a bridge in the De Soto community.
The public outreach meeting took place at the Quitman public library lasting from 4 to 6pm.
This allowed people that might be affected by this decision to weigh in and ask MDOT any questions they might have.
The current bridge stands over black creek south of Quitman and is around 80 to 100 years old.
While it is currently unable to support even emergency vehicles, building a new one could come with some consequences.
Kelly Castleberry, the district engineer for the 6th district of Mississippi Department of Transportation, led the meeting then spoke to News 11 about the problems of the old bridge and what they might hope to accomplish with a new one.
“The bridge is structurally deficient right now. It is posted, so there are weight limits on that bridge and we know that there are motorists that are exceeding those weight limits, whether it be trucks or farm equipment or anything like that. And M DOT has two options for that structure. One is we can remove that bridge, or the second option is we can replace that structure. In doing that, it’s going to make the slopes of the road go out further and so it’s going to impact 4 homeowners, so four homeowners would possibly lose their home to a right of way take if we had to replace this structure.” said Castleberry.
The new structure will be made of concrete and be able to meet the 84,000-pound load requirements for state highways.
Castleberry says it will still be months before they make a decision on this stating that today’s meeting was held so MDOT could hear what the community wants.
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