Governor declares emergency, orders county bridges closed

UPDATE: A spokesman for Gov. Phil Bryant said the list of dangerous bridges the governor is ordering closed to traffic had grown by Wednesday to 106. The governor's declaration covers bridges deemed unsafe by state and federal officials in the future.

Gov. Phil Bryant on Tuesday took the unprecedented step of declaring a state of emergency and ordering 83 dangerously deteriorated county bridges closed to traffic, saying counties' failure to do so is threatening safety and federal funding.

Bryant said his emergency declaration allows him to have Mississippi Department of Transportation workers close the bridges, with help from the Department of Public Safety and Highway Patrol if necessary.

Bryant said he also might call the Legislature into a special session soon to deal with the state's flagging and underfunded infrastructure — perhaps for them to consider creating a state lottery. But Bryant said he would wait until legislative leaders have an agreement or "are near an agreement" on infrastructure funding before doing so.

Bryant's action through an emergency declaration came after he received notice from federal Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. She said that despite federal transportation officials ordering bridges be closed months ago, 83 remained open in a recent check.

"These bridges have been deemed unsafe for the traveling public," Bryant said. "Keeping them open constitutes an unnecessary risk to public safety, violates the corrective action plan agreed upon by the state and federal government and jeopardizes federal infrastructure funds Mississippi receives."

The bridges are in Amite, Carroll, Clarke, Greene, Hinds, Humphreys, Itawamba, Jasper, Jones, Lauderdale, Leake, Lincoln, Newton, Pike, Smith and Wayne counties. The proclamation, Bryant said, also applies to bridges found to be deficient in the future, and the closure list can be fluid.

Central District Transportation Commissioner Dick Hall said that MDOT oversees bridge inspections and the State Aid Road Program oversees state money for local projects, but that only county supervisors had authority to close bridges without the governor's proclamation.

Derrick Surrette, director of the Mississippi Association of Supervisors, was unaware of the governor's proclamation. He said counties have been closing bridges at the direction of engineers hired for the federal inspection program. He said such closure takes time, and that hundreds had been tagged for closure.

Pike County Supervisor Chuck Lambert said he hadn’t heard from the Governor’s Office, but the Board of Supervisors did receive a letter from State Aid that eight to 10 bridges were on the list to be closed. Lambert said the county is in a perpetual state of closing  and fixing bridges and lacks a consistent funding source.

“There’s got to be a solution at some point in time,” Lambert said.

A list from State Aid, which was sent out about a month ago, included about 15 bridges in Amite County as in need of closure, said County Engineer David Cothren.

Cothren said he was under the impression the county had until May to close them. Since federal inspectors have gotten involved, the number of bridge closures has gone up, he said.

“What was once a routine maintenance now it needs to be closed down,” he said.

Surrette and county officials have questioned millions of dollars being spent on bridge inspections instead of bridge repairs. 

More:Counties face critical infrastructure funding shortages

"The feds initiated a review, and we spent over 70 percent of our federal funds, about $36 million, to inspect them," Surrette said. "Some of these bridges would only cost $20,000 to $50,000 to reopen, but we're spending $13,000 each to inspect them. And that doesn't count re-inspection. We would have to reinspect them before we reopen them."

As for hundreds of millions of dollars county governments need to repair, rebuild and inspect bridges statewide, Surrette said: "Where is all this magical money going to come from?"

Counties and cities, like the state, lack the money for proper infrastructure maintenance and repair. Many counties have raised property taxes in recent years, but leaders say they're maxed out. Meanwhile, state road funding has remained flat or dropped over 30 years as the cost of roadwork has increased.

Lawmakers have debated substantially increasing state road and bridge funding for three years, but been unable to do so. State revenue has been anemic in part because of large corporate tax cuts lawmakers have passed in recent years.

Despite calls for more road and bridge spending from business, transportation and local government leaders, and warnings about motorist safety and economic development, lawmakers for the last three years have been unable to agree on any major funding increase. The GOP leadership has refused to consider raising the 18.4-cents-a-gallon fuel tax that funds most state road work. It has not been raised in 30 years. House and Senate leaders have proposed various plans to borrow, earmark future revenue and divert funding from elsewhere, but haven't been able to agree on details.

Lawmakers did agree for the budget year that starts July 1 to borrow $50 million for the state's local bridge repair program. This is from $20 million a year the state is supposed to put into the program. But in many recent years, the state hasn't funded the program at all. Transportation officials and local government leaders say the $50 million would be a drop in the bucket for what's needed.

More:Trump wants states, businesses to foot infrastructure bill

Bryant said he has been talking with Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn and urging them to work with legislative leaders to agree on an infrastructure funding plan. He mentioned that a state lottery — which Bryant supports — would bring in an estimated $85 million a year that could help with infrastructure.

"I hope that's one of the things they're discussing," Bryant said.

Bryant said increasing the fuel tax, "is not something I'd like to see," but said there have been discussions of cutting income taxes to offset a fuel tax increase — a swap to shift more money to roads and bridges.

"I'd be interested in at least listening to that," Bryant said.

Hall, who has advocated raising fuel taxes, said a lottery "like some other proposals, would not provide enough money to make a real difference."

"MDOT alone needs $350 million to $400 million more a year for maintenance," Hall said. "... We need $2 billion to fix bridges on our (state) system."

Staff writer Justin Vicory contributed to this report.

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