Much-anticipated multi-modal facility set for opening

BROOKHAVEN — More than 10 years after the planning for the project began, a multi-modal transportation facility on Brookhaven’s North Railroad Avenue will officially open with a ceremony next Wednesday.

Brookhaven Mayor Less Bumgarner says the 11:30 a.m. ceremony is being timed so that a train will arrive just as the festivities end.

“If the train is on time then it will arrive about when we are done,” Bumgarner said. “I think that would be nice if it happened.”

The facility will replace an old Amtrak train stop, which has limited space and no protection from the weather.

The new facility is named the Godbold Transportation Center in honor of Bill Godbold, the Brookhaven mayor under whose administration the project began.

Godbold died last year. Members of his family will be present at next Wednesday’s ceremony.

Since 2003, the project has been mired in numerous delays, both financial and administrative.

In summer 2010, city officials thought completion was near, but a dispute between Amtrak and the Mississippi Department of Transportation broke out over the length of the boarding dock.

Ultimately, the dock was lengthened from 80 to 400 feet. That meant additional construction that pushed the project completion back until this month.