Drivers who have maneuvered for 2 1/2 years around barricades on U.S. 61 South at Signal Hill may see an end to the detour by spring.

Sections of sloughing southbound lanes just north of Wigwam Road closed a half-mile stretch of highway in April 2005. The Mississippi Department of Transportation then began a $5 million effort to stabilize the supporting hillside with concrete blocks, pledging not to reopen the road until the recurring problem had a permanent fix.

New “work zone” signs appeared at the site in the last three months, but delays continued as Mississippi Department of Transportation officials waited for vegetation to take root alongside the road.

In November, a $1.2 million construction bid to remove the asphalt of the failed lanes and replace it with a new riding surface was awarded to Vicksburg-based Lampkin Construction Company.

Despite delays as state engineers wait for supporting vegetation to take root and the resolution of recent legal problems for the construction firm’s owner, officials hope to see work begin in March and wrap up by July. Also, some extra grading and filling work may take place in the median before it reopens, MDOT Central District Engineer Kevin Magee said.

Five rows of concrete supports were placed about 100 to 620 feet west of the four-lane highway to head off further sliding, a problem since the road was built on cut and fill land about 40 years ago.

Project managers have left open the option of adding more concrete anchors as needed.

Since the stabilization work began and ended, traffic has been rerouted into the left-hand northbound lane, turning that section into a two-lane road and doubling its daily vehicle load.

As part of the overall slide repair project, asphalt in the northbound lane will also be leveled out and replaced.

Target dates for the reconstruction of the road were assured by MDOT this week even as construction company owner Ronnie Lampkin remained in Warren County Jail on a revoked bond facing felony charges following a series of alleged domestic violence incidents involving his estranged wife.

A longer-term goal of the highway department is to four-lane U.S. 61 from Vicksburg to Leland, an effort dubbed Vision 21 and includes work in progress to replace the Yazoo River bridge at Redwood. The road work remains years away, but the new, two-lane bridge is expected to open by June 2009.