Announcement of new Keesler gate project
It’s the project that has been contemplated for more than 15 years. Keesler’s new main entry gate project has finally been announced and will be located at Division Street and Forrest Avenue.
Today, News 25’s Taylor Rubach got a closer look at the new location and has more on what this means for Keesler and the City of Biloxi.
It’s been a long time coming for the City of Biloxi to announce the new location of Keesler’s main entry gate. The $37 million project will be at the intersection of Division Street and Forrest Avenue and will include an expanded boulevard along Division from I-110 to Forrest Avenue.
Colonel Michele Edmondson explains this new gate offers several solutions for the Air Force Base. “It helps us move our commercial vehicle inspection gate to a better location. It gets the traffic off Highway 90. It gets our cars off of the railroad tracks which is so busy at what is currently our main gate and it relocates our visitors center onto the new installation on a place that’s much more secure.”
The Mississippi Development Authority will provide a $5 million grant for the project, along with other sources of funding. Congressman Steven Palazzo said, “Governor Bryant has acknowledged they’re going to allow about $10 million in BP Restore Act funds to come in the project and they’re going to issue about 17 million more and the rest of the spending inside the gate is going to come from basically appropriations to the Air Force for them to make those repairs and that’s where Senator Cochran and myself will come in.”
What will this new location mean for business owners? More traffic flow and increase in business sales which is what Sean Desportes of Desportes Seafood hasn’t quite seen in quite some time. “With construction on the roads, we’ve been down anywhere between 40 and 50 percent in our business. We’re looking forward to this economic boost for us and I think it’s going to be a great impact.”
Construction of the project is expected to be completed in 2020.
Leave a Reply