Motorists who travel along a section of Highway 328 will have to use a detour beginning Thursday as Mississippi Department of Transportation crews remove and replace a bridge two miles west of Highway 7.

According to MDOT, the existing bridge will be removed and replaced with a new drainage structure. Traffic control devices will be in place to identify the closure, and advanced warning message boards will be placed west of Highway 7 and east of Highway 315.

MDOT expects this project to begin Thursday and anticipates the project to be complete in early July.

The project is one of several MDOT is working on in the area.

Construction of the Interstate 269 project continues and is on schedule, according to transportation commissioner Mike Tagert. The Interstate 269 project is the largest active MDOT construction project in the state. Construction is divided into eight individual sections, and dirt work for all sections except one has been completed. That section should be completed this month, according to MDOT District Two engineer Mitch Turner.

“Once dirt work for all sections has been completed, MDOT has two separate paving projects that will be let later this summer, and we anticipate these paving projects to last until fall 2018,” Turner said.

Once completed, Interstate 269 will form a 30-mile loop around Memphis through Mississippi and Tennessee. In Mississippi, Interstate 269 will begin at the Interstate 55/69 intersection north of Hernando, cross U.S. Highway 78 near Byhalia and continue northeast to the Tennessee state line.

Interstate 269 is expected to relieve traffic pressure on the Interstate 55/69 corridor and connect Interstate 40 and Interstate 55 in North Mississippi. Interstate 40 is a major cross-country freight route, and Interstate 69 will be an international connector between Canada and Mexico.

“I-269 will be a valuable asset, providing a safer and more efficient way for commercial vehicles to move goods through the region,” Tagert said. “As growth continues in DeSoto and Marshall Counties, this new interstate will be vital in promoting economic growth and development in the region. The construction of I-269 will transform the region by connecting local communities in several states and will have far-reaching international implications.”

The first section of Interstate 269, from Mississippi 302 to the Tennessee state line in Marshall County, was opened to traffic in October 2015.

In Tate County, MDOT crews will be replacing a bridge over the Coldwater River on U.S. Highway 51. This bridge was originally scheduled for replacement in November 2016; however, damage sustained to the bridge during a March flood event caused MDOT to close the bridge and move the project timeline forward.

The project will replace the existing 1,100-foot bridge with a new 2,000-foot bridge and raise the roadway by four feet to prevent future flooding. MDOT closed the Coldwater River Bridge on March 11. The bridge will remain closed until the replacement project is complete. A signed detour route is in place directing motorists to use Interstate 55 between Hernando and Coldwater.

This bridge replacement project has been let to bidders. Once the project contract has been awarded and construction begins, MDOT anticipates the project will be completed in spring 2018.