JACKSON, MS (AP) Work has begun in Madison County on a new interchange that is meant to provide better access to the Nissan manufacturing plant.

The $17.3 million interchange on Interstate 55 is to be completed by the end of 2005.

Two sections of road and a four-lane bridge will be built through the countryside north of Gluckstadt, MS. The interchange is supposed to relieve traffic at the Gluckstadt interchange and provide better access to the Nissan plant and its suppliers.

“All those trucks going back and forth to Nissan are going through Gluckstadt now, and it’s really causing a problem,” said David Trevathan, president of Key Constructors, which is building the interchange.

Freddy Stokes, an assistant construction engineer with the state Department of Transportation, said the section of I-55 where the new interchange will be built is projected to have a daily traffic count of 96,000 vehicles by 2025. Today, it’s 27,000.

As part of the Nissan aid package, the state already has built a north Nissan interchange and Nissan Parkway running in front of the plant.

The state helped lure Nissan with a $295 million economic aid package.

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