Contact: Joe Farris
A score of olive drab bulldozers, graders and other heavy earthmoving machines are rumbling 13 hours a day at Mississippi State as Mississippi National Guard engineers turn a stretch of hilly university terrain into a new campus entrance road.
More than 50 members of Company C of the 223rd Engineer Combat Battalion are spending their annual two-week summer training exercise building the roadbed base for what will become a three-quarter mile main approach to the central campus.
Earthmoving and maintenance platoons, along with a detachment from the headquarters platoon, represent about half of the Charleston-based company. They began working at the university on June 13 and are expected to have the job completed by the time the soldiers and equipment head for home June 27.
The other half of the company is devoting its annual training exercise to a project in Jackson.
The troops live in campus residence halls and eat breakfast and supper at the Perry Cafeteria. Lunch is prepared by University Dining Services and delivered to the worksite.
MSU also is providing the approximately 1,200 gallons of fuel consumed during each 7 a.m.-8 p.m. workday by the earthmoving equipment and support vehicles.
The hot but otherwise perfect construction weather, along with extended workdays, have allowed the engineers to be slightly ahead of schedule during the first week of the operation. Barring rain delays, the company expects to be able to cut back to a 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. workday for the last several days of the project.
"We are immensely grateful for the assistance of the Mississippi National Guard with this important project," said Mississippi State President Malcolm Portera. "Company C is performing an incredible amount of high quality work in a very short time and its efforts translate into a very substantial cost savings for the university."
The company includes men and women primarily from the area around Charleston, including the towns of Drew, Grenada, Water Valley, and Batesville. A few also come from West Point, home of the 223rd Battalion headquarters.
"Members of Company C are extremely honored to be part of an endeavor such as this," said Capt. Ken R. Nance, company commander. "This is an excellent project where we can train for our mission and increase our state of readiness. The university's administration and staff have enhanced our performance ability by being extremely accommodating to our logistical needs."
The U.S. National Guard was established with the primary purpose of protecting and supporting the communities and towns of the states it represents, said Nance, a Kilmichael resident.
"We pride ourselves in being actively involved both in the communities we individually represent and collectively in support of the state of Mississippi," he added.
Expected to be completed by fall 1999, MSU's new north entrance road will link U.S. Highway 82 at the entrance of the Mississippi Research and Technology Park to the center of campus. The planned four-lane boulevard will pass within a stone's throw of Chadwick Lake and the newly completed Joe Frank Sanderson Center, an indoor fitness and recreation facility.