Crews will start work at 7 p.m. Monday to resurface nine miles of U.S. 61 South in each direction, engineers with the Mississippi Department of Transportation said.

Traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction for the work’s first phase, starting about 600 feet south of the Pemberton Square Boulevard intersection, Vicksburg project engineer Jeff Curtis said.

APAC-Mississippi Inc. will handle “three-fourths” of the three- to four-month project at night, Curtis said, between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. Project documents specify a construction time of 89 work days for the $3.8 million effort, not counting days lost to bad weather.

Speeds will be reduced to 35 mph in work areas and fines for speeding doubled as per state regulations for road construction zones.

While traffic interruptions are expected to be minimal, police could be forced to direct motorists near choke points if necessary as work progresses, Vicksburg Public Works Director Bubba Rainer said.    

Lanes will be resurfaced one side at a time from the badly rutted Pemberton intersection to the Hancor plant, just north of Redbone Road, where long, rain-catching ruts have been cited as the cause of numerous motor vehicle accidents over years. Two public officials were killed in separate wrecks attributed to hydroplaning on rainwater in the ruts.

The project skips the Signal Hill area around the federal highway’s intersection with Warrenton Road, which was resurfaced in 2008 after a $6.2 slope stabilization. Nine miles of U.S. 61 North from Interstate 20 to just south of Redwood were similarly resurfaced in 2008.

APAC is also completing work on two major city projects, resurfacing Clay Street and a portion of Wisconsin Avenue. Those jobs were done with federal stimulus money.

Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com