Highway 49 in Simpson County is getting a multi-million-dollar facelift thanks to an influx of federal grant money.
U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) announced Friday that a $21.3 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant was recently approved to improve flow of traffic and commerce where Highway 49 intersects with state Highway 13 in Mendenhall.
The grant was made under the Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Develop (BUILD) program.
“The BUILD grant program is very competitive, so I’m grateful that this project in Mendenhall will receive funding to plan and construct a project to remake the US 49 and MS-13 interchange,” said Hyde-Smith, who chairs the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee. “This project will make travelling through this area safer and more efficient.”
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The improvement, dubbed the “Enhancing Safety and Mobility on US 49 and MS-13 in Simpson County” project, will include replacing a pair of bridge structures on US 49 over MS-13 to increase vertical clearance, while also redesigning interchanges between the two highways as roundabouts.