NATCHEZ &045;&045; Including projects finished in the last year, now under construction or now being planned, the state is spending almost $200 million to improve transportation in southwest Mississippi.

That includes four Natchez projects &045;&045; one of them in conjunction with Vidalia &045;&045; MDOT Director Larry L. &uot;Butch&uot; Brown highlighted while speaking at a joint meeting of the Kiwanis, Lions and Rotary clubs Wednesday.

People believe southwest Mississippi doesn’t get its share of transportation funds, &uot;but that’s not true,&uot; Brown said.

The first project is a new Liberty Road interchange designed to handle an anticipated increase in traffic from the extension of the Natchez Trace Parkway into Natchez.

MDOT should start in two months obtaining rights-of-way for the new Liberty Road interchange, a project that will take until 2005 to construct, according to consultants working on the projects.

The new design uses a modified partial cloverleaf but also includes more turnoffs on Seargeant S. Prentiss Drive north of the Liberty Road intersection.

That design, first shown to the public at a July hearing, will eliminate or cut highway access to fewer adjacent businesses than alternatives unveiled earlier by MDOT engineers.

That alternative will take a fire station and the county’s Extension Service building, both of which will be replaced at MDOT’s cost, Brown told a packed room Wednesday at the Ramada.

Meanwhile, consultants with ABMB Engineers &045;&045; a firm that has studied intersections throughout Natchez and has recommended changes &045;&045; are working with MDOT to redesign two major intersections.

The first is the junction of U.S. 61/D’Evereux Drive and Seargent S. Prentiss Drive, the site where a MDOT truck scale building has already been demolished. Under the current design, a flyway bridge would be construction to bring traffic turning left from U.S. 61 to Seargent S. Prentiss Drive without stopping for a traffic light.

The second is the intersection of Seargent S. Prentiss Drive and John R. Junkin Drive. Under the current design, changes would include widening Seargent S. Prentiss Drive to three lanes each way and extending John R. Junkin Drive into Tracetown Shopping Center. The result is a &uot;continuous flow intersection,&uot; a type of intersection that has no existing counterpart in the southeastern United States, although some cities are exploring the possibility, said John McKee Jr., principal of ABMB Engineers.

A new intersection is needed to more smoothly handle increasing amounts of traffic over the next 20 years, engineers said. They already estimate that Seargent S. Prentiss Drive handles 35,000 cars a day; John R. Junkin Drive, 25,000 a day.

Brown also announced Wednesday that MDOT, in addition to inspecting the Mississippi River bridge for safety and providing lighting for bridge traffic, also plans to install decorative lighting along the top of the bridge. &uot;It will be decorative bridge art,&uot; he said.

Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland said later Wednesday that his town will be glad to work with Mississippi to pay for the utility costs of such lights. With safety work being done first, it could take about 18 months to start installing the decorative lights, said those working on the project.

In addition, Brown noted that almost $3 million has been spent on the Government Fleet Road improvement project and other projects benefiting the port just in recent months.

He also assured the crowd that rail service to Natchez is not in jeopardy.

Earlier this year, Canadian National said it was considering suspending rail service to Natchez, but Brown said that CN’s chairman, a friend of his assured him that would not happen &045;&045; or that if it ever did, Brown would get the news first and would have at least two years’ notice.

If that happens, MDOT could find another rail service provider or has the authority, as a last resort, to own and operate the railroad itself.