POPP'S FERRY BRIDGE - UPDATE

Barges drifted to left of the draw section, According to city engineers two 90-foot sections and eight pilings were destroyed in the accident. The Popp's Ferry is 3,983.5 feet or three-quarters of a mile long. (photo from Coast Guard)

MAYOR WANTS "STATE OF EMERGENCY"

On Monday, March 22, Biloxi Mayor A. J. Holloway will ask the City Council to declare a state of emergency due to the barge collision that closed the bridge early Friday morning. Such a declaration will make clear that this bridge is of utmost importance to the city and that repairs need to get underway as soon as possible.

In the Biloxi Newsletter that I subscribe to, Bmail, the mayor stated, “I want to count the repair time in days, not weeks or months, and I'd like to get that bridge back up and running in 60 days or less.” He said that the "city plans to follow the same repair plan that saw the storm-ravaged Popp's Ferry bridge repaired less than four months after Katrina."

Holloway continued by saying, “This bridge is critical to our day-to-day travels, and we're not too far away from the June 1 opening of hurricane season so I want a state of emergency declaration to let our state and federal partners know the enormity of this situation.”