Jackson Jambalaya

Good Luck to Baker. MDOT sucks, and sorely needs some leadership.

I agree with Mark Baker! MDOT is a state department that marches to the sound of their own drummer. They behave as if they are independent of the State of Mississippi! And, I agree with 11:32 they are sorely in need of new leadership! Someone needs to remind them who they are accountable to and where they get their funding! The best way to get anyone's attention is through their pocketbook!!!

MDOT is much like a county Board Of Supervisors, or, on a national scale, the Bureau of Land Management. You give an agency this much unbridled power for this many decades and this is what you deserve.

But, what's up with calling the man 'attorney general'?

Thank you, Rep. Baker!
The only thing to add is that projects are constantly delayed unless it's in Madison County!

"$400,000,000. will solve all of MDOT's problems" (Dick Hall).

Terry, it took longer to redo the Ridgeland exit than it took the US to defeat the combined empires of Germany and Japan.

Hell, Baker is trying to beat Jim Hood with this speech !

Terry Williams wins the Dunce of The Weekend Award. He's obviously not negotiated state roadwork much in Madison County.

Took three years at least to get the 463 interchange completed and much longer to get the ancillary roadwork finished. Gluckstadt has been a nightmare and will continue to be one. Same with all the work between Madison and Ridgeland.

Perhaps Terry misspoke. Or perhaps he's just a dunce.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see poor management within the dept. Check the forms on their website, and you wonder if they're function is pushing paper. You wonder who is budgeting funds, managing personnel, procuring material and supplies, managing equipment, writing grants, etc. It appears the top isn't willing to designate responsibility, and wants to micro-manage the MDOT.

"Terry, it took longer to redo the Ridgeland exit than it took the US to defeat the combined empires of Germany and Japan. "

True enough, although building stuff carefully to definite specs generally takes longer than just blowin' stuff up.

(Edited for multiple typos)

Orange Cone Lover,

Did you even watch the video? I have lived off of 471 for approximately 11 years, and we have heard the same things that Rep. Baker has been told.

You say it took three years to get 463 completed. In 11+ tears the widening of 471 has not BEGUN. Now, you call me a dunce, but at least I can see the main difference here:

3 years - completion
11+ years - not begun

See? It's really simple if you actually read/listen and are capable of thought.

Name-calling is the sure sign of the inability to state your case.

Terry Williams: Point taken. However, your claim was untruthful. It's always tempting to throw stones at Madison and Madison County and you've fallen into that cesspool. If you're bitching because a project, after eleven years, has never begun, perhaps you missed the fact that it's been shit-canned or deemed currently unnecessary or low priority.

There's been no unduly favorable treatment for the Madison area in terms of roadwork or contract awards or decisions made that were not in the best interest of traffic moving on the interstate and necessary egress and ingress.

"Building stuff carefully to definite specs" is in fact precisely what ended the war with Japan, on two days in August 1945. ;)

The Gov controls MDOT. So if he wants to fix it then he can. Same with Dept of Revenue. They are just as crazy. Again, the Guv can make it happen. Wanna blame someone then blame him.

Orange Cone Lover,

I have no beef with the PEOPLE of Madison County. There is a certain politician who seems to get her every wish granted. My initial comment was directed at MDOT and that particular politician.

I do not understand bricked exit ramps (or fake Washington Monument cell towers).

The road work between Ridgeland and Madison seems to be a never-ending project, and I am sure that it has become tiresome for the residents, just as the continued promises about 471 have become for us here.

A side note:
I am a native Mississippian; my wife is not. Because of her job, she travels all over the state (by car). She is very impressed with MDOT's efforts regarding signage, and she claims that because of MDOT's efforts, it is impossible to get lost in Mississippi. Maybe she is right in that regard, but it seems that's the only thing they're doing right.

Didn't Baker vote for this bill? Also, 10:01, can you show me where the Governor, and not the Transportation Commissioners we elect, controls MDOT? Because, if he does, we need to get them off of the ballot even quicker than we already need to.

Can you imagine an agency that had to jump every time a Marc Baker said to jump? Baker is upset...but if MDOT is made to bow to a legicritter's every need....you might as well get ready for real cronyism.

MDOT is underfunded.

Raise revenue (did not say taxes) and provide ample funding and we can talk about something else.

Until then...this is just high drama looking for an audience

""Building stuff carefully to definite specs" is in fact precisely what ended the war with Japan, on two days in August 1945. ;)"


So I've heard - "When it absolutely, positively has to be destroyed overnight" :-)

Note to 10:33

The Washington monument is in Ridgeland. You people in Fondren need to get out more!

And blaming the Madison mayor for a Ridgeland cell tower? Newsflash for Terry: Distinguishable cell towers are prohibited in Ridgeland and Madison. That's why you see things like giant fake trees, Washington Monuments and the famous antenna disguised as a penis on top of a church beside the airport. Get over it. Life is NOT a pot-hole. Drink some prune juice and take a dump. Get out in the air. You'll love it.

The Washington monument is in Ridgeland.

It sure is........and we love it.

For those of you who say we should take up our beef with the elected commissioners, perhaps you should brush up on your history. Wasn't too long ago that 2 commissioners forced the third out of the headquarters and into a trailer.

Seems to me that we have problems with the gov and the commissioners.

And the department isn't underfunded. It's just undermanaged.

Yup, the two Democrats forced the lone Republican into a trailer.

If Rudy would have gotten elected he wouldn't have straightened everything out.

Anyone heard the scuttlebutt that inspectors have detected a latent defect in the structural underpining(poor concrete/rebar completion) of one of the bridge spans on the I-59 S-Curve in Laurel?

@8:23 Yeah, *straight* into his pocket.

@8:23 Yeah, *straight* into his pocket.

Cone Lover,

You need to relax a little. The Washington Monument comment was basically an "aside" comment. Yes, I know the Monument is in Ridgeland. The bricked exit, my main point, is not.

You really come across as an overly-wound, overly-defensive person. How sad.

Try this - leave your little Madison County cocoon, visit other parts of the state, and meet people other than the white, new-money types that inhabit your little world. You know it has been said,"No money is better than new money". I would posit that you are living proof of that.

An aside:
I have friends in Madison. They live in a gated community within a gated community. Brought to mind the lyrics, "Paranoia strikes deep".

Keep your "disguised" cell towers, columned fire stations, and garish shopping centers. Enjoy your little Mississippi version of Potemkin's Village. It provides the rest of us with much amusement.

Thou shalt not covet, Terry.

I've been told (and if I'm wrong, I'm sure someone here can/will let me know) that MDOT operates with their own funding AND with a portion (or maybe even all) of the MS portion of the fuel sales taxes generated. Although not being totally funded through appropriation, MDOT relies on the part of the sales tax I mentioned to provide resources for their projects. However, it's also my understanding that the legislature periodically raids the fuel sales tax portion of MDOT's funds whenever they have a "need" for it.......so, when a portion of MDOT's funds get "repurposed" every so often, that causes delays in their ability to move forward with particular projects.

Also, on another matter referenced earlier in this thread: I wonder how much time was added to the 463 interchange construction through the addition of the brick veneer? (Which, incidentally, is the ONLY brick overpass I've ever seen on any interstate in any of the 40+ states I've visited...)

Anonymous 10:08

Your "name" says it all.

Who covets an anonymous, soul-less cookie-cutter "community"?

I prefer a place with some history, some stories to tell, and a non-transient population.

I'm fine here.

If you want to know what's wrong with MDOT, do indeed follow the money and who benefits .

Do look at the legal documents for bid protests over time and the bidding procedures in detail.

Look at who donates to the campaigns.

Look at asphalt and gravel and not just the highway construction companies.

PS the trailer comments are funnier than most people know.

"I prefer a place with some history, some stories to tell, and a non-transient population. "

Ok, like getting burned to the ground, assassinating civil rights leaders in their driveway, and a group too poor to be able to move to where better schools and jobs are.

Fixed it for you.

Anonymous1:32

I think your are confused, but probably just ignorant.

I live in Rankin county. We didn't get burned down, Evers was killed in Jackson(which is in Hinds county), and the schools do pretty well in my part of Rankin county.

Was it Goethe who said, "Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action."?

Terry, since you seem to like quotes, who said "I have the right to tell my neighbors they can't drink those devil spirits, but ain't nobody telling me to close the petting zoo and move the dump truck out of my yard"?

Not ringing a bell? That would be your typical "neighbor" on hwy 471. Remind us again why used car lots and storage places demand a 4 lane road?

We don't need any more roads. We don't even need the ones we have. I sympathize with the need to fix design flaws.

Anon 7:40

Well, that would certainly describe certain areas of Rankin county...and Madison County, as well. Congrats. You've just described many, many areas of Mississippi.

It doesn't happen to describe my neighborhood or my town.

Here's the difference. We don't pretend to be something we're not. No facades will you find here. We do try to make things nicer, but we're not trying to be Germantown, TN or Brentwood, TN. Don't you find it a bit sad that some of your political leaders, and apparently a good number of the residents there, strive to copy other SUBURBS?

Maybe that's what you like. Good for you. It's just not my choice.

Now, go be a good little lemming!

The problem with MDOT is its funding from the Feds. All agencies who get a good deal of their budgets from the feds see the feds as their masters. whether its Mdot,Dept of Education or others who get most of their money from the feds they spend many working hours trying to comply so tha they can keep the masters happy. Great way for the feds to surpass a states government.

For those ASSuming that Madison County has smooth yellow brick roads, it is obvious that you have not traveled Hwy 463 or Bozeman Road. You will be lucky if are capable of driving 10 miles under the speed limit for fear of bouncy off the road and yellow lines are not existant, so you better hope for a sunny day.