Proposed road adds stop light to Pass Road, new access point to MGCCC Harrison County

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - Plans are moving forward for Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College to build a new road leading to its Harrison County campus.

The team behind this road project is meeting with the Biloxi Development Review Committee to present its latest plans to connect Pass Road to Eula Street. If approved, it creates a new access point to the campus.

“There were some questions about the connection to Pass Road and about the signal,” said Damon Torricelli, Senior Project Engineer. “We showed them that there was a traffic analysis done and gave them the close proximity between the signals and that it would be coordinated.”

There are eight stop lights on Pass Road from Cowan-Lorraine to Popp’s Ferry. This project would bring that number up to nine. Right now, there are traffic lights at DeBuys and Eisenhower; a new light right in the middle means drivers might have to stop three times in that half-mile stretch of Pass Road.

However, MGCCC leaders say it could ease traffic, especially as the Performing Arts Center draws more and more crowds.

“This will take some of the traffic off of DeBuys and make more of a direct access where we won’t be impacting the people going to and from the college,” said Torricelli. “They won’t be impacting the businesses and residences along Debuys Road.”

The next step is to conduct a property survey that will determine if there are any protected trees that would need to be removed during development. Once that happens, construction could begin as soon as this summer.

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