NATCHEZ — The imminent collapse of Triplett Lane is forcing the Adams County Board of Supervisors to meet and declare an emergency for the road.

County Engineer Jim Marlow said the drainage structure under the road failed during a series of heavy rains in March, which in turn caused one lane of the road to collapse.

“Right now it is a kind of precarious situation,” Marlow said. “We are hoping we don’t have any heavy rains.”

Supervisor Calvin Butler, in whose district Triplett Lane is located, said the continued collapse of the road has resulted in single-lane traffic on the road that provides access to the Kenny Graves Apartments.

“It is a very narrow path out of there, and it is very much an emergency situation because that is the only way out of Triplett Lane,” Butler said.

The county was already planning to address the issue — it had gotten Emergency Watershed Project funds for the site earlier this year — but the situation has gotten to where it needs to be addressed immediately, Butler said.

“I understand at the end of the school year, when it started getting bad, the kids had to walk up to the carwash (at the end of the road) because the school bus was afraid to come up in there,” he said.

There are also water and gas lines in the area of the drain failure, and the county will have to have ground around the failure excavated, the 60-inch pipe removed and a new cross drain and some side drains installed before the area can be backfilled and repaved, Marlow said.

While the work is being completed, Butler said a fence between the Kenny Graves apartments and the Village Green apartments will be taken down and a temporary road will be constructed to allow residents access to the area.

The meeting today will declare the situation an emergency so work can begin as soon as possible, Supervisors President Darryl Grennell said.

“It is such an emergency issue that the engineer needs to go ahead and get some contractors on it and get that fixed before we get some additional rain and lose the entire road,” he said.

Marlow said the site survey, design and easement acquisition have already been completed, so now it is only a matter of receiving emergency bids and getting work started.