FEATURE STORY

Construction/Engineering

Construction signals are mixed. Mississippi Delta lacks Toyota type development to spur construction activity


By Becky Gillette
DBJ Contributing Writer

Absent a major economic development project like the new $1.3 billion Toyota automobile assembly plant planned near Tupelo, the Mississippi Delta isn’t likely to experience a lot of large construction projects in the year ahead, according to some local construction companies and engineering firms.
“From all I read and hear about from architects, the outlook for the North Delta is not very promising, although there is some work coming out--mostly small projects,” says Harvey Green, president of Harvey Green Construction in Clarksdale, Miss. “There are a few larger projects that have to do with the new Toyota plant on east side of state and the new GM jet engine manufacturing plant in Batesville in Panola County. That project is larger than the work we pursue, and it will probably be pursued by contractors coming from other areas of the state and out of state just like Toyota plant.”
The biggest money being spent on construction in the Delta is for public projects. Ron Cassada, co-owner of Gardner Engineering, with offices in Indianola and Kosciusko, Miss., says a number of ongoing projects are keeping them busy.
“In our type of work, we are really not seeing a huge slowdown,” Cassada says. “We have all kinds of projects going on. What we do is infrastructure such as roads and bridges. Around the city of Indianola we have an industrial park extension road off Highway 49 next to SuperValue. We have several bridge construction projects in Sunflower County. A lot of the bridges are low rated, so these bridge replacement projects are very important to safety and to the economy.”
Gardner Engineering is involved with several street overlay projects that will be going through all of the towns within Sunflower County, thanks to a special appropriation requested by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. Sunflower County received $1.6 million in funding, and most municipalities within the county received between $250,000 to $400,000 to redo their streets.
“We have a downtown revitalization project going on with new decorative sidewalks tied to the B.B. King Museum,” Cassada says. “We’re doing some work at the downtown Farmer’s Market including refurbishing parking areas and constructing a shelter adjacent to the bayou. We are also at the beginning of a new county board of supervisor’s term so we have new state aid appropriations. Projects that are locally funded through the county’s budgeted revenues are limited because that money is limited. But as far as our overall business, we have a good workload at this point.”
Darrell Martinek, project engineer with W.L. Burle Engineers in Greenville, Miss., says there is some work going on but perhaps not as much as there was five years ago.
“It comes in stages depending on funding,” Martinek says. “There is an existing street project on Washington Avenue and the city has awarded a water well rehabilitation project at the Mid Delta Regional Airport. There also are additional street projects planned for the city. But, what’s ahead? That is a big question mark. I really don’t know. My concern is there is not a lot of industry construction going on that would create more jobs in the Delta in the long run. We don’t have a Toyota coming in, for instance. That is great for Tupelo and that area, but it isn’t going to help us here.”
Green says his company’s work is 25 percent negotiated, and 75 percent hard bid. And the hard bid market is pretty depressed right now.
“There is some work out there, but it is very small and attracts a lot of small contractors like myself and others smaller than us,” Green says. “It makes competition great. It is a buyer’s market so to speak. Some contractors are making payroll and keeping the lights on by getting projects at a discount price to keep their people busy. Then, every once and a while, there will be the sprinkling of a nice job.”
But, Green says, construction activity in the Delta is nothing compared to what’s currently ongoing in the Jackson metro area and what he expects to soon be seeing on the Gulf Coast. He predicts that as soon as problems with insurance affordability and availability are straightened out, there will be a tremendous amount of work available on the Gulf Coast. The Jackson area also is expected to continue to see healthy construction activity.
The Delta is traditionally not a large commercial construction market, according to Green. Many contractors make their living off of schools and public works projects, with a sprinkling of retail work now and again particularly in the Northwest part of Mississippi from DeSoto County south down to Greenville.
“There is just not a lot of work out there and we don’t expect there to be a whole lot of work out there for a while,” Green says. “We are primarily an agricultural industry part of the state. Much of the public works sector has been depressed because of the money directed to the Gulf Coast to help them rebuild. When that gets on an even keel, perhaps some will come back this way. There is certainly a need here, but we expect them to take care of the biggest need until things get better.”
Construction is cyclical, and for Delta contractors, it may be a matter of staying lean and waiting for better days ahead.
“We just have our fingers crossed,” Green says. “Hopefully the economy will be better toward the end of 2008 and into 2009. I guess it will be survival of the fittest and we hope to be one of those still around when things turn around.”
The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) in on track with one of the largest projects in the state, construction of a $110-million Highway 82 bridge over the Mississippi River to connect to Lake Village, Arkansas. Kevin Magee, Delta district engineer for MDOT, says the main span, cable stay portion of that bridge is pretty much complete.
The Mississippi approach is underway, and it is 98 percent complete. The Arkansas approach leading to the main bridge, a $66-million job, is almost 70 percent complete. MDOT is hoping to open the bridge in November 2009.
“The Arkansas approach will be the controlling factor of when we can get the bridge open,” Magee says.
Another major MDOT project is the Greenville bypass, the Highway 82 four-laning project that will run from the new bridge to Leland bypassing Greenville. MDOT just let the bids on that $32.5 million project for the first section of the bypass. Magee says construction will begin as soon as weather allows.
“Trying to get started in the winter is maddening,” he says.
Another major project is in Warren County just north of Vicksburg where MDOT is replacing the Highway 61 bridge over the Yazoo River. The $32.7-million project is about 73 percent complete with the bridge scheduled to open in the fall of 2009.  DBJ


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