Mississippi Transportation Commission reviews contracts, property conveyances, rail and IT funding; moves into executive session on workers' compensation

The Mississippi Transportation Commission on June 26 reviewed and discussed a broad set of administrative, capital and procurement items, including engineering work assignments, property conveyances, supplemental local public agency agreements, rail multimodal project funding and information-technology procurements. The commission later approved a motion to hold an executive session to consider two workers' compensation settlement matters.

Among the items presented to the commission:

- A work assignment under MDOT’s hydraulic engineering services master contract with Gresham Smith to provide Phase A bridge hydraulic design for four bridges in Monroe County (Kalpena Creek, Shoaf Creek, Tom Bigby River and a relief structure on Mississippi Highway 6). The amount of the work assignment was listed as not to exceed $400,686.62.

- Authorization to pass condemnation orders on listed parcels (status and parcel details presented; right-of-way acquisitions for those projects were expected to take about three to six months, according to staff).

- Two quick-claim deeds to convey uneconomic remnant parcels along Mississippi Highway 63 in George County: a 20.0-acre remnant to Stone Investment Company, Inc. for $44,706.20 and a 13.8-acre remnant to James Cochran for $30,847.30.

- Concurrence with a local public agency (LPA) supplemental agreement with Chris Albritton Construction Company and Stone County School District to construct 4,800 linear feet of road around a new high school, 1,200 linear feet of sidewalk and parking. The supplemental agreement added 60 calendar days to the contract completion date (from 06/01/2025 to 07/31/2025) to allow work while students were not on campus.

- A second LPA supplemental agreement with Riverside Traffic Systems that revised sign locations and added 7 working days to contract time for a multi-road safety project in Tate County; staff said the change responded to field conditions and the new Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices guidance; no additional contract cost was associated with that adjustment.

- Request for approval of FY 2026 rail multimodal transportation improvement funds totaling $1,398,000 for four railroad projects, with the rail multimodal committee having approved the allocations on May 22, 2025.

- A work assignment under the traffic engineering services master contract with Kimberly Horn to provide Phase A field inspection and Phase B final construction plans for a roundabout at the intersection of US 61 and Mississippi 12 in Washington County, amount not to exceed $326,148.24. A second work assignment with Stantec for safety improvements on Mississippi 42 between I-59 and Sunrise Road in Forrest County was listed not to exceed $271,438.73.

- Information systems items including ratification of a purchase for 31 traffic cameras and a proposed statement of work with Plante Moran for an Enterprise Financial Systems roadmap and pre-procurement services not to exceed $3,036,000 (Phase 1 $1,768,800; Phase 2 optional $1,267,200). Staff explained Phase 1 would deliver a feasibility study and needs assessment; Phase 2 would prepare procurement documents and implementation advisory services if pursued.

- Sole-source procurement certifications and subscription renewals presented by ITS: Daktronics traffic controllers for digital message signs (sole-source; amount listed as $26,000 in the report), Micro Focus software licenses through Cogdell Corporation for the financial management system ($183,342.85 for a three-year term), and a one-year AASHTOware expansion for the Office of Highways ($956,725). MDOT staff said purchases from AASHTO are exempt from competitive bidding.

- Legal and administrative items including a one-year agreement with Region 8 Mental Health Services to administer MDOT’s employee assistance program at a cost not to exceed $103,000; an extension of an EPA staff position assignment through an agreement among FHWA and EPA at no additional cost; acceptance of a $25,535.33 settlement from IMC Logistics for damage to cable barrier on US 78 in Marshall County; and a proposed three-year contract with Veil Corporation to provide workers' compensation support services not to exceed $3,200,000 over the contract term (with options to extend).

Commissioners asked clarifying questions during the presentations. Regarding condemnation orders, a staff member identified an expected three-to-six-month timeline for those right-of-way acquisitions. On bridge maintenance the commission acknowledged recent additional funding and a federal grant that allowed MDOT to bundle 13 bridge projects across Madison, Lauderdale and Newton counties.

On information-security questions related to the enterprise systems work, Information Systems staff described steps MDOT is taking to develop policies and internal hosting options to reduce the risk of sharing personally identifiable information with external AI tools. "We're looking at some tool sets that will, you know, partition us off from the rest of the world that we can host maybe some AI capabilities in our data center that's kinda cut off from the rest of the world," said Ben (Information Systems staff).

Formal procedural actions recorded in the transcript included a motion to approve minutes of the previous meeting (motion carried) and a motion to approve the meeting agenda (motion carried). Later, the commission voted to move into an executive session to discuss two workers' compensation settlement matters; the motion to enter executive session was seconded and carried, and nonparticipants were asked to leave.

The transcript did not record a roll-call vote or individual tallies for each authorization item on the agenda; several items were presented as requests for the executive director's authorization or concurrence. Where the transcript did not record a formal outcome, the meeting record shows the items were presented for approval or concurrence but does not document a discrete vote in the audible record provided.

The commission then recessed for the executive session to consider the two workers' compensation settlement matters.