NATCHEZ &8212; Drivers have a few months before they face more road construction in the area, but it&8217;s coming.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation is currently taking bids for the widening and repaving of U.S. 61 South from the St. Catherine&8217;s Creek bridge to the Adams/Jefferson county line.

Bids will be opened on May 23, but work probably won&8217;t start until July, Resident Engineer Jim Eggleston said.

The project will take several months, he said.

Construction will add a foot and a half on each side of the highway and lay new blacktop.

&8220;It makes it a little bit safer,&8221; Eggleston said. &8220;It gives you a little bit of pavement before you hit the gravel.&8221;

The work is regular highway maintenance, he said, and the widening is part of the plan for all state four-lane highways.

&8220;This is one of the last sections to get that treatment,&8221; he said.

MDOT is currently working at the intersection of U.S. 61 and Liberty Road to create a partial cloverleaf. That project is scheduled for completion in August 2007. That work started in August 2005.