NATCHEZ — Andrew “Andy” Hughes died Saturday, but his legacy is forever embedded in the pavement and concrete of Mississippi’s highways and bridges.

Hughes work can be seen all over Natchez including the second span of the Natchez Mississippi River bridge that was completed in 1988, the Natchez Visitor’s Center and the Natchez Trace, said former Natchez Mayor Butch Brown.

“His footprint is everywhere in Natchez and his fingerprint is hard not to see,” Brown said. “He meant a lot to us and to the state.”

Hughes’ life-goal, Brown said, was to work 50 years before he retired, and Hughes almost achieved it, having worked 48 and a half years.

“He was the longest-serving employee of the federal highway administration in America,” Brown said.

Born and educated in Alabama — Hughes was the Mississippi division administrator for the Mississippi Department of Transportation for more than 21 years and an employee of the federal highway administration for more than 48 years, Brown said.

Hughes started working for the Department of Transportation when he was 22 years old and never retired. At 70 years old, Hughes died Saturday at his house in Brandon.

As a former executive director of MDOT for eight years, Brown said he knew Hughes closely — as did many others who have seen his accomplishments.

“We laughed together, and we moaned and groaned together,” Brown said. “He was quite well-known. … After Hurricane Katrina passed through (in 2005) … transportation in Mississippi and Louisiana was destroyed. We actually spent time on the Coast together to name the contractors (who would rebuild).”

Brown said Hughes set a record that will not be easily broken, both for time working with the DOT and for building a 5-mile stretch of bridge completely over water.

Hughes was responsible for contractors rebuilding both the Bay St. Louis bridge and the Biloxi Bay bridge — while rebuilding other Mississippi highways — after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Brown said.

The Bay St. Louis bridge is 85 feet high and carries four lanes of traffic while the Biloxi Bay bridge is 95 feet high and carries six lanes.

“It takes 11 years to build a bridge on average, and we built 5 miles of bridges over water … and opened them up to traffic in 18 months,” Brown said. “The federal highway administrator set a goal to rebuild all bridges in seven years or sooner. … He thought that rebuilding them in 18 months was a little ambitious.”

Dealing with one of America’s most devastating natural disasters was just one of Hughes’s undertakings in his 48 years with MDOT, Brown said.

Funeral services for Hughes will be at Ott and Lee Funeral Home Chapel in Brandon at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Visitation will be from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. prior to the service. Graveside services will be held at Meadowlawn Cemetery in Enterprise, Alabama, at 10 a.m. on Wednesday under the direction of Searcy Funeral Home of Enterprise.