This story was first published in the Sun Herald. Read more here.
Those driving I-10 in South Mississippi over the July 4 weekend can’t yet stop and stock up on Beaver Nuggets for the ride, but they can see the walls go up on the huge Buc-ee’s travel center west of Gulfport.
Precast concrete walls are being delivered to the site Wednesday for the sprawling 74,000 square foot, $50 million Buc-ee’s, the first in Mississippi.
“They are flying with these panels,” said James Randolph, who got photographs of the walls being lifted on Wednesday.
Since the September 2023 goundbreaking, crews have been working on the foundation, the utilities and other infrastructure. Now the construction is going vertical. Randolph describes the work at the site Wednesday morning, as a crane with rubber tires lifting a precast panel into place. Crews fasten the panels to the slab and then use wooden braces to support the panel until intersecting walls allow the panels to stand on their own.
“A spline connects each panel to the adjacent panel. The spline is secured with bolts,” he said.
“Meanwhile, site work continues on other parts of the property,” he said.
EVERYONE’S WATCHING
A new Tesla plant wouldn’t attract as much attention as the phenomenon of a new Buc-ee’s, a developer told Bill Lavers, executive director of the Harrison County Development Authority.
A person called his office this week to find out how they could get a job at Buc-ee’s he said.
Management positions were just posted on Indeed and other online job sites, which typically happens six months before a Buc-ee’s opens. Three months ahead, applications will be taken for about 200 full-time and part-time positions and a job fair will be held, the company said.
Other businesses are expected to follow Buc-ee’s to the Menge Avenue exit 24 of I-10, but Lavers said investors are being cautious, given the interest rates and concerns about the election.
A crane lifts precast concrete panels into place at the site of the Buc-ee’s travel center that’s under construction along I-10 in South Mississippi. Photo courtesy of James Randolph
EXIT WORK WRAPS UP
Harrison County took on a $15 million construction project at the Menge Avenue exit to prepare for the big increase in traffic Buc-ee’s generates wherever a store opens.
The overpass above I-10 is about done, Lavers said.
“That bridge needed to be replaced,” he said. It was built in 1971 and saw large traffic counts, even before Buc-ee’s.
While the exit work is nearly complete, drivers will have to contend with more road construction.
The widening of I-10 to six lanes through Harrison County is starting and will continue into 2027.