Lincoln County encompasses a lush area of wide pastures, thickwoodlands and, to the dismay of county supervisors, numerous minorand major waterways.

Those waterways must be bridged for traffic to cross.

With 296 bridges, Lincoln County has the third-highest number ofbridges in the state behind Hinds County with 409 and LauderdaleCounty with 309.

“It’s very frustrating,” said District 4 Supervisor Doug Moak.”A lot of major tributaries develop in Lincoln County. That’s whywe have so many bridges.”

The county ranks second in the state in the number of badbridges with 74. Only Amite County, with 87, has more badbridges.

Supervisors said they are actively pursuing bridge replacementand repair programs, but there is only so much they can do becauseof a lack of funding. State and federal programs do try to assist,but those funds are generally split among all the state’s 82counties.

“They need to have it go to the counties where it’s neededmost,” said District 2 Supervisor Bobby Watts.

The county has already used all its funding this year to replaceor repair bridges that were labeled high priority because of thetraffic or severity of the damage. New State Aid funds will not bereleased until June or July.

“The board has been so aggressive on our roads and bridges thatwe’ve used all our money,” Watts said. “It will be June or Julyuntil State Aid will get more money that can be allocated toLincoln County.”

Until then, supervisors said, the county’s bridge program is onhold. All they can do is close bridges or make temporaryrepairs.

Already, residents have seen bridge closures cycling around thecounty. Supervisors will close one, make temporary repairs and thenreopen it to traffic.

“We do the best we can in replacing or repairing them,” Moaksaid. “We want the roads open, but we want them open and safe.”

Some, however, have not reopened. A bridge on Smith Lake Roadwas closed indefinitely earlier this month.

“The legislature has been very good about funding the programs,but we’re number one or number two in the state with bad bridgesand there’s only so much they can do,” Moak said.

District 5 Supervisor Gary Walker said he replaced a bridge onDurr-Case Road last week.

“It looked like all that was holding that old bridge up was theheartwood, and it wasn’t doing it well,” he said.

He didn’t expect to be able to do another major job until theState Aid money came in.

“I wish every person in Lincoln County would cross bridgesslowly and inspect them,” Walker said. “I think if they would, theywould have us have a bond issue to fix all the bridges in thecounty.”

He estimated the bond issue would be at least one milliondollars to complete the necessary bridge work. He doesn’t expect tosee the bond issue addressed this year, however.

“I’m hoping the state of Mississippi will help us,” he said.

District 3 Supervisor Nolan Earl Williamson also predicted itwould take a bond issue within the next few years to solve theproblem.

Moak said he has seen five bridges in his district be condemnedsince he took office almost four years ago. All five weretemporarily replaced with culverts and reopened and all five arelisted in the state’s bridge program.

He closed a bridge on Gene Road two years ago that has notreopened.

It’s not a high priority, he said, because the bridge seeslittle traffic. There are also other ways to get to any destinationon the road without crossing the bridge.

Williamson, the board president, said he has been lucky. Thereare no closed bridges in District 3, although some are close toclosure. A bridge on Mound Road is scheduled to be replaced, but”there’s no money in the kitty to get it done.”

Walker has four bridges scheduled for work and hopes to havethem rebuilt by the end of the summer, when the State Aid moneybecomes available.

Meanwhile, the list of bad bridges continues to grow.

Watts said he did not want to criticize supervisors of the past,but most of the bridges needing work are held up by wood pilingsand supports. Those pilings and supports are rotting from beingconstantly submerged in water.

When supervisors replace a bridge, Williamson said, they arereplacing the wood with steel pipe and other more durablematerials.

“It’s not cheap,” he said, “but it makes a stronger,longer-lasting bridge.”

Until all the wood piling bridges are replaced, Watts said,supervisors will be continuously replacing bridges.