The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1949-05-13

May is hospitality month in Mississippi, and we are
urged by Governor Fielding L. Wright and the All board
TO take stock of our historical and scenic assets, and to
generally go out Of our way to make life more pleasant for
our tourist visitors, who constitute an economic asset of
considerable importance to our state.
Now jackson county may have named a Miss
hospitality" In honor of our tourists, but in addition we
give them a unique welcome, as shown by the pictures re-
produced on page one of this issue.
Our countys land the state's) welcome to tourists head
ing into the Mississippi Gulf Coast area from the North is
rough, sub-standard, deterioratcd, dangerous Highway 90.
possibly the heaviest travelled tourist highway in the state.
Proof Of this are the pictures reproduced on page ono.
They were taken at Nine Mile bridge. above Orange Grove.
and the dangerous hump" in the highway Is one of the first
greetings our tourist visitors get as they enter Mississippi
from Alabama.
The state highway department got around to patching
up this break in the concrete Wednesday of this week. but
patching is going to do little good as the whole concrete
slap is breaking up at this point. The repairs were made,
however, after the hump was allowed to menace the life
ana property OF every vehicle operator along this highway
for two weeks or more. The only precaution taken was a
small sign calling for a speed of 10 miles an hour. No flares
- and no repairs for two weeks.
The break, itself, was in the form of q hump in the
pavement which rose to a height of IL to Is inches. Broken,
jagged concrete slabs jutted from it. 1t lay almost COM
pletely across one traffic lane, just after vehicles rounded
aTcurve. AT this point, as along most of the highway. the
shoulders have eroded and washed away until there is a drop
of from three to five inches from the slab to the dirt
siouuci. III narrow highway at TINS point also traVerSeS
a fill, with a drop of eight to nine feet to the marshy land
below. A more dangerous death trap could not have been
deliberately designed.
Meanwhile, the bridges between Pascagoula and eau
tier become more dangerous daily. The dips in the concrete
because of the sinking and deterioration are enough to
throw a car travelling at a normal speed out of control. Last
week a hole five feet long and two feet wide broke COM
pletely through, sending one man to the hospital.
The concrete is breaking up at the underpass near
Fontainebleau, but at least the dangerous hump" there
Is marked by warning flares.
Two-lane sections of modern highways are of little use
along Highway go, as long as the 30-mile stretch through
jackson county is allowed to remain a death trap to Wis
itors unfamiliar with its general condition.
As we said before. and repeat. we are not interested
In vague plans connected with relocation of the highway
At some future date. The danger is immediate and continu-
Gus. and the only answer is major repairs to the highway
now !. and not in the future. If the highway department
cant make those repairs now we also repeat that. in the
interests OF safety and human life and limb. they should
close 1t until they can.