Residents of the Seneasha Creek area along Attala Road 4002 asked Monday for the Attala County Board of Supervisors to construct a temporary bridge to replace one that remains closed.
The residents told the board that the alternate route to avoid the two bridges on the same road causes a detour of more than 30 miles, and extends a 20-minute trip to Kosciusko to a full hour.
The detour also makes it difficult for 45-50 church members to attend Sunday services in the area.
Consulting inspectors hired by the federal government have repeatedly closed the two bridges, despite the efforts of the county to complete repairs to get them reopened.
The county applied for and received $1,658,625 in funding to fix these two bridges, but the process to do so is a lengthy one. After explaining the inspection and closure process to residents, County Engineer Christian Gardner told the group that — even with funding in place — it will likely take about two years to construct and open the new bridges due to a stringent approval process.
Supervisor Kary Ellington told the group that there is no funding available to construct temporary crossings at the location (at a cost of about $400,000) because he committed available funds to the permanent replacement project in order to get the grant funding for a permanent solution.
Residents expressed frustration they were not notified that the bridges would be closed, but Supervisor Steven Goss explained that the county is only given 24 hours to close a bridge once notified by inspectors to do so.
“We feel the same way that you do,” he said, “but we don’t have any say-so.”
