CONSTRUCTION ON Highway 463 is under way and, thus far, has been moving along smoothly.

The goal of the project is to make the highly utilized roadway more safe and accommodating for the 18,000 motorists the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) reports as traveling the roadway per day.

The project is moving along without any snags, according to Dick Hall, MDOT transportation commissioner.

Highway 463 is being widened to four lanes with a center turn lane. The project, set to cost a little more than $5 million dollars, is no small construction, but it is only the first of two phases that have been announced to involve the widening of Highway 463.

“The first project will widen the section of 463 from I-55 to Post Oak Road and we are also adding a new street to access some of the local neighborhoods in the area,” Hall said.

“The second phase of the widening of 463 will be bid on in July of 2008 when the first phase is supposed to be completed. The second phase is estimated to cost $19 million and begin at Post Oak Road and extend to Highway 51.”

Currently crews are continuing work on the first phase of the project by doing dirt work, grading and making the impending new road surface smooth for future construction.

But that’s not all according to Lee Hill, the transportation commissioner’s assistant, the crews are getting ready to install inlets and drainage pipe in the graded smoothed dirt road surface. To complete this process of the project, Hill reported that a couple of roads will be momentarily closed.

“First the crews will close Welch’s Farm Road for about a week and then once that reopens, they will close Garden Park Road for about a week,” Hill said.

ACCORDING TO MDOT, not only will Welch’s Farm Road be closed shortly for some remodeling but as the project progresses the road will also receive a traffic signal as part of the project.

Dickerson and Bowen Inc., are working on the first phase.