Senator Polk and Hudson speak about bridge closings

HATTIESBURG, MISS. - The Mississippi Department of Transportation (M-DOT) will start closing down Mississippi bridges early Monday morning. The M-DOT action follows a proclamation from the governor that names 83 bridges that don't meet federal guidelines and should be closed. The federal government has threatened to withhold federal funds if the state doesn't act. “We don't need the federal government down here telling us how to run our business,” Mississippi’s State Senator, Billy Hudson said. “We got good engineers in these counties. What we need is some money to fix the bridges with.” State Senator, John Polk followed-up Sen. Hudson’s comments by saying the state officials need to address the issue. “We got to address that somehow, there are many ways to do it, but I’m not quite sure what we are going to do yet,” Polk said. “But I do look for a special session to be called sometime soon to address that issue.” “But these counties that don't have the money, and do have the bad bridges need to get this money quickly, and get this thing fixed before somebody gets killed,” Hudson said. Twenty-seven of the bridges in question are in Jones County. M-DOT will begin closing the bridges at 6 a.m. Monday.