A second attempt in as many years to order four-laning of U.S. 61 through or around Port Gibson has been filed in the Mississippi Legislature.

House Bill 776 would place under “high priority” segments of the federal highway not already scheduled for widening. Language in the bill suggests remaining segments along the entire stretch, from the Mississippi line with Louisiana to its border with Tennessee.

Reps. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, and Americus “Chuck” Middleton, D-Port Gibson, are two of the bill’s 14 co-authors. Its chief sponsor, Rep. Robert Johnson III, D-Natchez, filed a similar bill last year, which died in committee. This year’s bill is before the House Transportation and Appropriations committees.

In 1987, the state began the AHEAD project to widen the state’s major highways. Port Gibson contains the last segments of U.S. 61 in Mississippi not widened into four lanes between I-20 in Vicksburg and the Louisiana state line.

The issue of whether and how to bypass Port Gibson has divided the Mississippi Department of Transportation, businesses and historic preservation communities on the state and local level.

MDOT has said it plans to move on its design for the project, citing the original legislation as its authority and despite the opposition of Central District Commissioner Dick Hall. The two other elected commissioners’ plan is to modify street-side sections of Church Street, which the highway becomes through the center of town, to accommodate an extra lane on the approach and exit to the town. Church Street is already four-laned along several central blocks flanked by historic homes and houses of worship.

The Port Gibson Heritage Trust, acting through its Highway 61 Committee, opposes the widening because of anticipated effects on the homes, churches and trees that line the center of town. It has favored a bypass of the city to the north and east, then reconnect south of town.

In July, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History joined the trust in opposition to the project on grounds the road is a place of special historical interest. Officials with the state historic preservation agency toured Port Gibson’s historic sites in October.

Some Port Gibson businesses have favored widening the highway to keep traffic flowing through downtown, where many longtime establishments are located. Supporters of a bypass away from the city have chosen novel ways to express their opinion, including a folk song depicting the debate and circling some trees along Church Street with yellow caution tape by preservationists to draw attention to a key symbol of the group’s opposition.

Most other towns along U.S. 61, which was the major route between New Orleans and northern cities until Interstate 55 was built, have bypasses.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com.