[5/27/04]The busy intersection where Bowie and Oak Ridge roads meet will be rebuilt starting as early as next week.

Under the new design, the T-shaped three-way stop will be reworked so that only Oak Ridge traffic approaching from the south will stop.

The intersection handles a heavy flow from large residential areas north and east of Vicksburg. At project’s end, those vehicles will follow a straight, uninterrupted connection.

District 1 Supervisor David McDonald, said while the former intersection will become seamless, separate road names will be retained.

The contractor on the project, APAC Mississippi, may be given approval to begin work as early as Wednesday, said Lynn Wolfe of the county’s engineering firm, ABMB Engineers Inc.

The project is expected to cost $370,829. That amount is to be paid from Warren County’s share of state funds administered by the Division of State Aid Road and Bridge Construction.

“Quite a few of our major arterial roads” are eligible to be improved using such funds, McDonald said.

The State Aid funds come from gasoline taxes consumers pay at the pump, Wolfe said.

The contract, awarded April 19, calls for the work to be completed in 100 days, McDonald said.

Bowie Road, which runs east and west 1.4 miles from U.S. 61 to the intersection, is the shorter route from it to the major north-south artery. On Oak Ridge Road south from the intersection to Culkin Road and west to U.S. 61 is about a mile farther, 2.6 miles.

“Oak Ridge, Tucker, Fairways all of that is just really growing,” McDonald said, referring to road names in and northeast of the Openwood subdivision.

The section of the Bowie-Oak Ridge route will also have a third, left lane for traffic planning to turn left onto the section of Oak Ridge that runs south to Culkin Road, McDonald said. The county has purchased right-of-way to the north of the work area.

Some pavement on the existing Oak Ridge Road will be removed, and some driveways will be reconfigured because of the change, McDonald said.

In recent years, traffic lights have been added to U.S. 61 North. The first was at the highway’s intersection with Bowie, followed by a new light at Sherman Avenue and the entrance to River Region Medical Center and, earlier this year, at the Culkin Road junction.