Roadways and streets are always a concern for any municipality or county. The condition of the roads and streets is used as a measuring stick for how well a group of leaders are managing a city or county.
The Simpson County Board of Supervisors has developed a four year comprehensive road and bridge plan that is to be executed from 2021-2024.
The Simpson County Road system is composed of a total of 1040.898 miles of roads, according to MDOT.
According to the plan a new major road project was recently completed within the county. The Harrisville to D’Lo Road begins at the Intersection of Highway 469 and the Harrisville-Braxton Road and runs in an easterly direction for approximately 12 miles ending on Highway 149 in D’Lo. This new road provides citizens of the northwestern part of the county with better law enforcement, fire protection and ambulance service.
The primary factor in maintaining roads and bridges is funding. The comprehensive plan details the strategy of what is necessary to properly maintain the county’s roadways.
According to the long term road and bridge plan, the primary emphasis on all county roads over the next four years will be directed toward paving as many roads as possible, exercising proper maintenance of existing paved roads, improving drainage from the roads with appropriate road shoulders and ditches, grinding and incorporation of grinding material of many roads or parts of roads as needed for future paving, and replacing bridges with low sufficiency ratings on a county-wide basis. New bridge repair and replacement funds have been made available by the Mississippi Legislature which will help with bridge infrastructure repair and replacement.
The following is a list of roads detailed in the plan as needing reseal, overlay, paving, or other repairs:
AG Williamson Road
Ainsworth Road
Andrew Johnson Road
Athens Road – State Aid Project
Barney Road
Bear Cat Road
Bell Road
Bill Collins Road
Bill Smith Road
Bill Womack Road
Boggan Ridge Road
Brandon Williamsburg Road
Bridgeport Road
Cato Road SAP-64(16)M - State Aid Project (fog seal, edge repair and re-stripping)
Charlie James Road
Chester Road
Christian Heights Road
Clark Road
Cliff Sheppard Road
Cordis Rankin
Cotton Road
County 472 Road
Crawford Road
Daughdrill Road
Delmus Road
Dry Ridge Road
Dub Lucky Road
Eugie Palmer Road
Evergreen Road
Gaither Johnson Road
Gum Springs Road
Guy Sherman Road
H Dear Road
Hall Road
HB Smith Road
Herrington Road
Hezekiah Weathersby Road
Holyfield Road
Hopewell Road SAP-64(62) State Aid Project
James Berry Road
Joe Dear Road
John L. May Road
JD Herrington Road
JN Kennedy Road
Jupiter Road
JW Williams Road
Lawrence Wiggington Road
Lemmie Payne Road
Leobia Womack Road
Lewis Road
McCallum Road
McMellon Road
McNair Springs Road
Merit Road
Mt. Zion to Shivers Road STP-0392(6)B and SAP-64(19)S - State Aid Project
Nevil Craft Road
Newsome Road
Norman Road
Old Gravel 49 Road
Old Westville Road
Page Brown Road
Ponder Mason Road
Preston Mangum Road
Rockport New Hebron Road
Scarborough Road
Sol Grubbs Road
St. John Road SAP-64(19)S – State Aid Project
Star Braxton Rod
Stewart Road
Vard Sullivan Road
Warren Road
Wash Welch Road
Wilson Floyd Road
Zion Hill Road
According to the comprehensive plan, normal repairs and maintenance work on county public roads, bridges, rights of way, and drainage structures are done on an “as needed” basis at the discretion of the road manager in accordance with the policies of the Board of Supervisors.
Normal maintenance was not addressed in detail in the road plan.
Road construction and maintenance will be performed on the basis of the county as a whole and not on the basis of supervisors’ districts. All county roads may be paved, extended, repaired and maintained as necessary by the Road Manager subject to approval and/or guidance from the Board of Supervisors.
