City, county work on land acquisition

Southaven off icials have agreed to allow the city attorney to work with DeSoto County on the land acquisition needed for the Swinnea Road extension project.

At Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting, aldermen unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding between the city and county, which begins the process for both legal departments to discuss buying property for the project with landowners.

he extension of Swinnea Road has been on the table for more than a year. Extending the road will relieve traffic on Goodman Road and other northern DeSoto County arteries.

The right- of-way acquisition for the project includes the city and the county buying a proposed total of 7.56 acres.

The two governments have already split the $192,000 engineering and design costs for the proposed road project that would connect the Swinnea Road gap between Nail Road and Church Road.

The proposed $2.18 million project calls for the Swinnea intersection at Nail Road to be realigned to move traffic more efficiently. New road sections — built to handle a future five-lane route — will be two traveling lanes with a paved shoulder to be used as a bicycle-pedestrian path.

When the property is secured for the project, construction is expected to take 90 to 120 days to complete, officials estimate.