NATCHEZ — After a five-day-long inspection, the Mississippi River bridges appear to be in good shape.

Mississippi Department of Transportation Supervisor Bud Vines said MDOT crews finished a routine inspection of the bridges Friday afternoon.

“Everything looked good,” he said. “I think everything is going to be fine.”

A seven-man crew conducted the inspections, slowly working their way from one end of the bridges to the other, inspecting both the top and bottom of the structures.

“They looked under the bottom of (the bridge) with a snooper truck,” Vines said. “It has got a long arm on it that goes out and then down and under the bridge.”

The men who inspected the top of the bridge, including the metal superstructure of support beams, did so on foot.

“They were looking to see if there was anything that needed replacing, if there was anything that needed doing to it at all,” Vines said.

Following the inspection, MDOT had an inmate crew clean up the ends of the bridges and the paths that travel under them, Vines said.

“We had dirt that had built up on the concrete as you are approaching the bridge, and we let the inmates in there and they cleaned all of that off,” he said. “It really looks good.”

While the inspections are now completed, the one-lane traffic conditions will continue on the bridges so the bridge lighting project work — which has been under way for several months — can continue, Vines said.

The aesthetic lighting project, which will serve to both light the roadway and make the bridges visible at night, has a projected completion date of April.