An 83-mi.-long stretch of the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi will get much-needed safety improvements after the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) awarded a $54.3 million grant to the National Park Service (NPS) for the work.
The money will pay for construction crews to upgrade the parkway's pavement conditions in the state and improve the road's safety by installing audible pavement markings.
Once the project is complete, the NPS expects to have a significantly better highway in Mississippi — just a part of the popular and historic 440-mi.-long road, which runs from Nashville, Tenn., to Natchez, Miss.
The modern two-lane highway is a recreational and scenic route that approximates the path of the Old Natchez Trace, a historic forest trail that linked the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi rivers. Created and used by Native Americans for centuries, it also was traveled by early European and American explorers, traders, and emigrants in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Upgrades to Be Paid for by Various Funding Sources
"Through President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we're now modernizing more of the infrastructure that creates opportunity in tribal communities," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an Aug. 17 press statement. "Today, we're proud to award over $54 million to resurface, restore, and rehabilitate over 80 miles of the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi, making it safer and more resilient for all those who rely on it."
NPS officials noted that the parkway is driven or biked by millions of people, supporting economic activity in the surrounding areas each year.
"The grant we're providing to the National Park Service will bring safer travel and better access to recreational opportunities and natural and cultural resources along this parkway and help create good-paying construction jobs to get the work done," explained the FHWA's acting Administrator Stephanie Pollack.
The highway department noted in its announcement that it has worked closely with the NPS for decades to improve infrastructure in and around national parks such as the Natchez Trace Parkway. That partnership has grown since the 2020 passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, which provided funding to update and expand recreation opportunities in national parks and other public lands.
The money for the Mississippi road upgrade is made possible through FHWA's Nationally Significant Federal Lands and Tribal Project program and reflects the Biden-Harris Administration's focus on serving tribal communities, agency officials said.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law made significant changes to the program by increasing annual authorizations from $100 million to $355 million and ensuring Native-American tribal transportation facilities receive half of the appropriated funds. Critically, tribes can apply for funding at 100 percent federal share with no matching requirement, a historic barrier for tribal access to infrastructure funding, according to the press release.
The FHWA explained that the program grants federal funding for construction, reconstruction or rehabilitation of multi-modal transportation facilities that are situated within, adjacent to, or provide access to federal or tribal lands.
The Natchez Trace Parkway qualifies for the funding because it also is considered important to the well-being of the area and its surrounding community, the agency announced, as well as supports safe access to popular recreation destinations such as national parks or provides critical transportation support for hospitals and schools on tribal lands.
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