Warnock campaigns for transportation commissioner post

Published 10:38 pm Thursday, May 24, 2007

Civil engineer Rudy Warnock, of Vicksburg, wants safer roads and reduced congestion on the state’s highways.

If elected as transportation commissioner for the state’s Central District, he said he plans to work to improve the state’s highway system.

“Currently, the North (highway) commissioner and the South commissioner of Mississippi are building roads and bridges every day, and people of Central Mississippi are sitting in traffic,” said Warnock, who campaigned in Meridian on Thursday.

If elected, Warnock said he plans to work hard to make roads and bridges safer and to gain funds to finish projects and begin new ones.

Warnock, 34, of Vicksburg is a Democratic candidate for Central District Transportation Commissioner. He will meet incumbent commissioner Dick Hall in the November election.

The Central District is made up of 22 counties.

Warnock said he hopes to overcome the politics involved with the highway commissioner’s job, politics that he believes hinders progress in the office.

If elected, Warnock said he would work to expedite the project to widen Highway 19 North between Meridian and Philadelphia and to expedite the construction of the interchange at Hawkins Crossing.

Commissioner Hall said in an interview with The Meridian Star in March that he is seeking federal aid to get the Highway 19 North project started. He said the Highway 19 North project is expected to begin in June of 2008, with a completion date set tentatively for 2016. The project is estimated to cost a little more than $99 million.

But Warnock believes he could shorten the window on that project and have the project completed before its set completion.

“You have to have someone who is an engineer who understands how to build roads and bridges, and you have to have a person who is willing to cross party lines to work with the Northern and Southern transportations commissioners for the benefit of the Central part of the state,” Warnock said.

Hall also said he is working hard to secure funds for the proposed interchange at Hawkins Crossing in Meridian that would lead to the Interstate 20/59 Industrial Park. He said there is currently $5 million in the works for it but much more is needed to complete the $27 million project.