Commissioner John Caldwell holds up $100 million in local infrastructure projects
Jun. 28—JACKSON — An elected transportation official from north Mississippi on Tuesday has delayed the state being able to spend $100 million on emergency infrastructure projects that will allow counties and municipalities around the state to rehab their crumbling roads and bridges.
State law requires a unanimous vote by the commission before the $100 million in Emergency Road and Bridge Repair funds can be released.
John Caldwell, the state's northern district transportation commissioner, voted against awarding the projects at the commission's regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday morning because he said he did not have enough time to review the proposed project list.
"The project list on the surface looks reasonable," Caldwell told the Daily Journal. "But it's a long list and a lot of variables. Essentially, I was only having a few working days in the middle of a chaotic week to review the list."
The first-term transportation commissioner also said there were "internal communication issues" with MDOT staff that caused him to vote against the measure, but he declined to specify what the communication issues were.
Caldwell, a Republican from DeSoto County, was the lone dissenting vote on the commission. Willie Simmons, a Democrat representing central Mississippi, and Tom King, a Republican representing south Mississippi, voted in favor of the project list.
Even though the Emergency Road and Bridge Fund money flows through the Mississippi Department of Transportation, the funds only go toward local projects in individual counties and municipalities.
MDOT leaders initially wanted to use the $100 million to repair roads on a prior project list submitted by local governments. But with surging inflation, fuel prices and construction costs, estimated project costs from that list had changed drastically. So they decided to allow counties and municipalities to apply again for new projects, which were scored by MDOT engineers.
Brad White, executive director of MDOT, told the Daily Journal that he feels like the MDOT staff did "phenomenal work in a very short amount of time," given the circumstances.
"The results of that scoring process were provided to the three commissioners, the advisory council and others a week ago," White said. "And Commissioner Caldwell was the only one who expressed a need for more time — and he didn't do that to me until today."
A review by the Daily Journal shows that Caldwell's Northern District stands to receive around $32.4 million from the total $100 million pot of money. Lee County, specifically, was set to receive around $3.5 million to rehab County Road 520.
The commission could call a special meeting to bring the project list up for consideration again, or it could take the proposal up at its next regularly scheduled meeting on July 12.
Caldwell indicated that he eventually intended to support the project list at one of the future meetings.
"I don't expect too much of a delay," Caldwell said.
