Contact: James Carskadon

Representatives from Mississippi State University, the city of Starkville and Oktibbeha County celebrated the new multiuse path on Locksley Way Tuesday [Oct. 29].

The walking and bike path links the south end of the MSU campus to the south side of Starkville, providing safe pedestrian access to and from campus, and connecting several points of interest in town. It was built using federal funding administered by the Mississippi Department of Transportation, with matching funds provided by MSU, Starkville and Oktibbeha County.

“By working together, we have created a beautiful pedestrian corridor that will benefit our students and the citizens of this community,” MSU President Mark E. Keenum said. “As our campus and the surrounding area continues to grow, it is important that we develop infrastructure to support multiple transportation methods. I would like to thank everyone who has worked to make this project a reality.”

The path runs from the intersection of South Montgomery and Locksley Way to the intersection of Blackjack Road and Stone Boulevard. It connects to the Lynn Lane multiuse path, which runs from South Montgomery to McKee Park. Combined, the two projects create over 2.5 miles of pedestrian pathways through densely populated and high traffic areas of Starkville.

“The Locksley Way multiuse path is one of the premier projects for our community because it serves as a continuation of a project within the city, but in this case we were able to partner with our strongest allies, Oktibbeha County and Mississippi State University,” said Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill. “Oktibbeha County and Supervisor Bricklee Miller took the lead on this project and saw it through to its successful completion. It also serves the goal of recognizing quality of life as one of the major factors in creating a community where health and transportation can meet to achieve positive results. This is a win-win for each of our respective entities.”

The Locksley Way project contains the first two-way cycle track in Mississippi. It also includes a convenient stop for the Starkville-MSU Area Rapid Transit (SMART) system. The total construction cost was $971,828, most of which was federal funding. MSU, Starkville and Oktibbeha County each contributed $133,000 toward the project.

“I am particularly proud of this project because the city, county and university leveraged grant money for a quality-of-life improvement that wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t worked together,” said Miller, Oktibbeha County District 4 supervisor. “This is just one small step, but this kind of cooperation, and projects like this, make our community more attractive. That’s critical to community being the number one place for jobs and opportunity in our part of the state.”

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.