Crews with the Mississippi Department of Transportation are in full swing to pave the west side Highway 11, as part of the agency’s widening project that will turn a section of the highway to 4-lanes.

Now that base work is complete crews will begin the binder lift on Monday. Those crews have already installed several light poles on the west side of Highway 11 and the west side sidewalk is nearly complete, said Project Engineer Dexter Childs.

“We’ve really been paving, it’s been our main focus this couple of past weeks,” said Childs.

Paving of that side of the highway is expected to be complete next week depending on weather.

After the paving is finished, crews will shift traffic to the outside lanes and start working on the center/median aspects of the project which includes installing median islands and left turn lanes.

During that time, traffic will still be one lane each in the north and south directions.  “There shouldn’t be as much obstructions, but there still may be the usual traffic,” Childs said.

Completion of the project, which is widening the road from Hide-A-Way Lake to Cayten Street, is slated for sometime this year. “What we’re thinking is around this summer of this year,” said Childs.