State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

How Long Can a State Go Without Repairing Roads and Bridges?

Governing: Mississippi’s increasingly unreliable infrastructure -- its crumbling roads and hundreds of deteriorating bridges that have been closed or weight-limited -- is straining the state’s businesses and local governments. It’s no wonder, then, that they, along with transportation advocates and their allies, have pressed the legislature to do something about it. Yet year after year, lawmakers in Jackson have come up empty-handed.

This year was no different, even though lawmakers came tantalizingly close to a road improvement package. A week or so after they failed to pass a fix-up plan, Gov. Phil Bryant announced that the state Transportation Department would immediately shut down 83 locally owned bridges.

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