Greenwood Underpass
Greenwood Underpass
Preparations for the beginning of actual construction work on the underpass, which will bring Highways 49 East and 82 into Greenwood, are being rushed.
Yesterday the Highway Department, which has purchased a right of way from Stone Street through to the Y. & M.V. railroad, sold off the houses, which will be moved to clear the way for the road and the underpass.
The underpass will come into the foot of Main Street, and that road is so engineered that from Stone Street to the railroad, it cuts through three blocks of rather thickly built up Negro property. A hundred foot right of way has been purchased by the Highway Department for the approaches and the underpass.
The pavement of the underpass will be of concrete and the sidewalls of concrete construction.
Included in the contract also is the grading and drainage on Stone Street from its intersection with the new highway to the city limits, where it will meet the paving on 82. Contract has already been let from the city limits to the Carroll County line for concreting of Highway 82.
The underpass contract will be let by the Highway Department on September 13, and it is estimated that the work will cost approximately $400,000.
The Greenwood Commonwealth, September 9, 1938
Contract for the underpass, which will bring Highways 49 East and 82 under the Y. &M. V. railroad at Greenwood was awarded by the State Highway Department yesterday to Sandy Hites of Kansas City, Mo. Sandy Hites is the contracting firm which has just completed the Itta Bena-Morgan City road of the Leflore County system.
From The Greenwood Commonwealth, September 14, 1938
One full trainload of cement will move into Greenwood for the underpass on Highway 49 East and 82, contract for which was let yesterday to Sandy Hites of Kansas City and Greenwood.
Contract for the cement was closed this morning by the Delta Lumber Company of Greenwood for ten thousand barrels of cement, which is approximately fifty minimum cars, or an entire trainload.
It is the largest single sale of cement ever made in Greenwood, and the Delta Lumber Company is being congratulated in securing the business.
From The Greenwood Commonwealth, September 14, 1938
Work on the underpass, which will bring traffic on Highways 82 and 49 into the city from the east and the south, is progressing according to schedule, but the final work must wait the needed time for concrete to set. Pouring the bridge spans for the railroad tracks is nearly completed, but the concrete must set for twenty-eight days before the tracks are taken from the false work and put on the new concrete. Final paving on the underpass must await the removal of the trestling which now supports the railroad.
The approach to the underpass from Gibbs Street is completed except for sodding. The approach, which starts at Gibbs, makes a beautiful street, forty-six feet wide, with two lanes of traffic divided in the center. The city will continue the widening of Main Street from Gibbs to the C & G railroad.
From The Greenwood Commonwealth, November 27, 1939
The underpass at the foot of Main Street which has been under construction since last summer was opened to traffic today, bringing Highways 49 and 82 from the South and East directly into the city and eliminating a grade crossing.
The underpass extends from Gibbs Street to Stone Street, and passes under the yards of the Y. & M. V. railroad. It is one of the finest pieces of engineering in Mississippi and is the largest and finest underpass yet constructed by the state in its highway program.
In the underpass and on its approaches, the roadways are divided, two twenty-foot lanes bearing the traffic, separated by a six-foot neutral strip, down which lights are set about two feet off the ground.
To take care of the water during rainfall, a complete drainage system was installed with the underpass with automatic pumps.
Until the new paving work on Main Street from Gibbs to Johnson is completed, traffic coming through the underpass is routed up Main to Gibbs, thence on Gibbs two blocks westward to Fulton and then north on Fulton through the city. The highway markers were changed to that routing today.
From The Greenwood Commonwealth, March 20, 1940
The underpass on Main Street, due to a failure of the drainage system, and the volume of water pouring out of the inlets from the surrounding territory, was turned into a swimming pool and reached a depth of some eight feet in the underpass.
Youngsters donned bathing suits and enjoyed the new swimming pool.
Inlets calculated to take water out of the streets leading to the underpass were turned into geysers and added to the volume of water, which poured into the cut under the railroad. The underpass was closed all night and was not passable until about seven o'clock this morning.
From The Greenwood Commonwealth, July 13, 1940