Contract awarded for road expansion

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - NPD Resources Inc. of Brookhaven, Miss., has been awarded a $12.46 million contract to expand Highway 607 at Stennis Space Center from two lanes to four lanes. The project is expected to take 18 months. The highway will be expanded to a four-lane divided roadway between Saturn Drive and Texas Flat Road at Stennis Space Center, a distance of about four miles. The improvement will be made by adding two lanes west of the existing roadway from Saturn Drive to the north security gate at Stennis and adding two lanes east of the existing roadway from the gate to Texas Flat Road. A 30-foot median will separate the four lanes. The roadway addition is part of a larger project to expand state Route 607 to four lanes all the way to I-59. The expanded road not only will provide service to Stennis Space Center, but will serve as a hurricane evacuation route. (Source: NASA, 09/22/10)