At 9 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 3, traffic on Jim Ramsey Road moved onto a new alignment just north of the old one. It now runs from Seaman Road east of the highway to Seaman Road west of it, and the old stretch between those two Seaman Road ends closed permanently. The same morning, a new extension of Poticaw Bayou Road opened just west of the current State Route 57 and connected to the new Jim Ramsey alignment. Tippah News reported both changes, drawing on a Mississippi Department of Transportation post.
Earlier phases of the project brought detours and lane shifts. MDOT called the September changes permanent, and they show where the project is going. When the work is done, the four-lane bypass west of town becomes State Route 57, and the existing route through Vancleave gets a new name. That plan was described to the Sun Herald in March 2023 by MDOT public information officer Anna Ehrgott. The road that has carried the number past Vancleave's schools and business district will become a local road, and the highway will run west of town.
Where the Number Goes
MDOT describes the job as a $212.6 million project to widen State Route 57 and build a new four-lane alignment along about nine miles from I-10 to Vancleave. The contractor is W.G. Yates and Sons Construction Company. When the project is finished, the route north from the interstate will look like this:
- I-10 exit 57 to Gautier-Vancleave Road. The existing highway is widened from two lanes to four.
- Gautier-Vancleave Road interchange. The new four-lane alignment swings west of town here.
- Humphrey Road. In early 2024, Sun Herald reporting placed the new highway over Humphrey Road on a bridge.
- The Twin Magnolia Lane connection. An interchange near Twin Magnolia Lane connects directly to the existing highway and the business district.
- Jim Ramsey Road interchange. This is the overpass that the September realignment was building toward.
- North tie-in. The bypass continues past the stadium and rejoins near the Lake O' Pines area.
The reason for the western route is a 1.5-mile stretch of the current highway. According to the Sun Herald's February 2024 progress report, five schools and the school district's administration office line that stretch. The same report says the finished four-lane road will also serve as an evacuation route when tropical weather approaches. MDOT's map shows exits from the bypass to the current road, so drivers can use part of the new highway to get around town and still reach the business district.
Why Jim Ramsey Came First
Jim Ramsey Road has been part of this project's construction schedule for a long time. In February 2024, the Sun Herald reported that a Jim Ramsey detour was about to open so crews could start the overpass across the new Highway 57. Crews were already paving sections near the Jim Ramsey interchange. That detour was temporary. In September, the realigned road became permanent.
The Poticaw Bayou extension matters for a related reason. The Sun Herald's 2023 description of MDOT's plan said traffic coming down Old River Road and Poticaw Bayou Road would be able to cross the current Highway 57 and reach the bypass directly, "eliminating a major bottleneck." In its Oct. 19, 2026 update, MDOT confirmed that the newly built section of Poticaw Road west of the original highway is open and ties into the new Jim Ramsey alignment. That is the first of those planned direct connections to open.
For anyone driving from the north side, the result is a new set of turns that won't change again. The old Jim Ramsey segment between the Seaman Road ends is closed for good, and map apps and habits that still route through it will need to catch up.
The South End Is in Month Ten of a Six-Month Switch
On the south end of the project, the setup is still temporary. MDOT's January 13, 2026 traffic advisory moved northbound drivers onto the newly built southbound lanes, two-way traffic on one side of the road, for about four miles from I-10 to just north of Humphrey Road. The switch started Saturday, Jan. 24 at 7 a.m., and MDOT said it would last "approximately six months." The advisory also barred wide loads.
Six months from Jan. 24 would have been late July. MDOT's Oct. 19, 2026 project update says traffic "remains in a head-to-head configuration on the newly constructed southbound lanes of SR 57 from I-10 to just north of Humphrey Rd." while crews build the northbound lanes. Counting from Jan. 24, that four-mile stretch has now been head-to-head for more than nine months. MDOT has not published a new end date for the switch.
This setup was part of the plan from the start. In 2023, Ehrgott described the sequence: build two new southbound lanes, shift traffic onto them head-to-head, then rebuild the northbound lanes. The project is still following that order. The current phase has simply run longer than the January advisory said it would. Farther north, MDOT reports that earthwork and drainage work is continuing on the northern portion of the project.
How the Corridor Got Here
The September changes are the latest steps in work that started more than three and a half years ago.
- March 2023. Crews began clearing trees on the west side of Highway 57, starting near The Shed restaurant and working north. The Sun Herald reported that an RV park next to The Shed was reduced in size to make room for the new lanes.
- February 2024. Ten of the project's 13 bridges were under construction. Ehrgott told the Sun Herald that the hot, dry weather of 2023 had put the bypass ahead of schedule: "The drought helped us a lot."
- April 2025. MDOT reported that work had begun on the last of the 13 bridges, with earthwork and drainage underway south of the Gautier-Vancleave Road interchange and crews working south toward I-10.
- January 24, 2026. The head-to-head switch began between I-10 and just north of Humphrey Road.
- September 3, 2026. The Poticaw Bayou extension and the new Jim Ramsey alignment opened, and the old Jim Ramsey segment closed permanently.
- October 19, 2026. MDOT reported the project on schedule, with completion still expected in 2027.
The 2027 target has held through all of it. MDOT gave the same year in its April 2025 update and again in October 2026.
Business owners along the road have weighed the disruption against what comes after. In a January 2024 story, WXXV News 25 spoke with BJ's Cafe owner Amy Byrd Williams about morning traffic during construction:
"Three years of construction is going to be a lot. I see negative and positive right now. It does cause some issues in the mornings. The traffic is backed up really bad. You hear a lot of complaints. You can't make everybody happy, but I think in the long run it's so beneficial. It's putting us on the map. We're growing."
That interview took place early in the project's first full year. MDOT's 2027 completion date puts the total closer to four years of work than three.
What Hasn't Been Decided Publicly
MDOT has not announced the most local detail of the project, which is the new name for the road through town. The 2023 plan said the existing route through Vancleave would get a new name once the bypass takes the State Route 57 designation. No name has been made public, and no date has been set for the change.
Until then, the project's own milestones are the best guide to the order of what's left. The northbound lanes between I-10 and Humphrey Road have to be finished before the head-to-head switch can end. The northern earthwork and drainage have to be done before the bypass can carry through traffic around the schools and business district to Lake O' Pines. MDOT posts live lane changes through its MDOT Traffic mobile app, at MDOTtraffic.com, and on its @MississippiDOT accounts on Facebook and X. Those are where the next traffic shift, and eventually the new name, will be announced first.
Road changes like these affect how a property near Highway 57 is reached and how it will be described in a listing. If you own or manage property near the corridor and want to know how the bypass and the old road's renaming could affect it, Rain Residential can help. Talk With an Advisor.
