About four miles of the eastbound lanes of Interstate 20 near Edwards in western Hinds County will be closed to traffic for about four months beginning in mid-March, Jeffrey Curtis of the Mississippi Department of Transportation said Wednesday.

Curtis, an engineer with the Vicksburg project office, told members of the Lions Club that eastbound motorists will be detoured to the westbound lanes during road reconstruction of the area.

“The area needs a new road,” he said. “It’s lived its life.”

The project consists of rebuilding the failing 50-year-old base in the four miles near Edwards and putting down a new asphalt riding surface.

“We’re removing that pavement, and traffic will be moving head to head in the westbound lanes with a concrete barrier in between,” Curtis said. “Once they get it all removed, they’ll place it back with asphalt, then move (motorists) back over.”

New road construction of the eastbound Edwards interchange is part of the nearly $20 million reconstruction project that began last fall on the westbound lanes, Curtis said.

He said APAC Mississippi, the project contractor, will have up to 126 days to complete this phase of construction.

The entire reconstruction project is nearly half complete.

During the first reconstruction phase that ended in November, concerns of road deterioration on U.S. 80 east of the Big Black River, which was used by motorists as an unofficial alternate detour, were raised.

Curtis said MDOT does not recommend U.S. 80 as a detour, adding, “We don’t expect traffic to be backed up too bad.”