Visitors to the Biloxi Small Craft Harbor and adjoining commercial harbor should enter at Main Street instead of the Lameuse Street entrance beginning Wednesday, as site work begins on the new Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
Developers plan to break ground in February for the $250 million resort, which will be on U.S. 90 immediately north of the commercial harbor.
Traffic will be limited on Lameuse Street south of U.S. 90, but the Main Street entrance will allow access through a two-way waterfront road linking Main and Lameuse streets. Parking, however, will be limited to the west and east sides of the commercial harbor for about 90 days, when contractors expect to open the first phase of the Hard Rock’s parking garage.
“We’ve worked at great lengths with the Hard Rock folks to limit inconveniences and to ensure that we actually will have more waterfront parking when all is said and done,” Mayor A.J. Holloway said. “But there will be some temporary inconveniences during the early part of the construction.”
Holloway said that once the project is complete, the current access road linking Lameuse and Main streets will become a fire lane, and a two-way access road will run through the Hard Rock parking garage, providing waterfront, harbor-designated parking with easy access to the harbor.
Said the mayor: “We realize that a good number of our shrimpers depend on easy access for dockside sales, and we’re working to maintain that access. We appreciate their patience in the meantime.”
