Motorists traveling Mississippi Highway 32 between Charleston and Oakland will soon be facing traffic delays, but for a good cause.
The roughly 9-mile section of Highway 32 — project documents refer to the work zone as “approximately 8.5 miles” — will be the setting of a major construction effort that will yield a new layer of asphalt and bright new striping that should help to make the busy thoroughfare safer.
In July, the Mississippi Transportation Commission awarded Lehman-Roberts Company of Memphis a nearly $4.089 million contract to perform the work.
The present surface of the highway will be milled, with the existing asphalt removed and ground, and the roadbed will be overlaid with a fresh layer of asphalt.
The project area encompasses a stretch of highway just east of the Charleston city limits and continuing to U.S. 51 in Oakland.
Mitch Turner, engineer for the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s District 2, headquartered in Batesville, said chip seal work is expected to begin late this week near Oakland, at the eastermost end of the project.
Chip sealing is a process that involves application of an asphalt emulsion and then a layer of crushed rock.
The contract allows Lehman-Roberts a total of 88 working days for completion of the project.
This is just the latest in a series of major highway improvement projects performed in Tallahatchie County in recent years, and several more are on the drawing table, including, in 2022, the planned milling and overlay of Mississippi Highway 35 — aka Valley Road — from Charleston to the Panola County line.
