GREENVILLE BRIDGE TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY NARRATED BY STEVE AZAR

With a main span more than a quarter of a mile long, two concrete towers soaring 425 feet above the Mississippi River and four great fans of supporting steel cable, the new US 82 bridge near Greenville, Miss. is one of the largest bridges being built in the world today.

The four-year construction of this spectacular new crossing over America's most storied river will be documented in a one-hour television program, "Second Crossing: The Mississippi Delta's Landmark Bridge," currently in production. The documentary will be narrated by Nashville recording artist and Greenville native Steve Azar (www.steveazar.com). 

The program was commissioned by the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) and is being produced by HNTB Corporation of Kansas City, Mo., the designer and consulting engineer for both the new bridge as well as the existing U.S. 82 bridge -- the first crossing, which was completed in 1940.

"The new Greenville Bridge is a world-class structure that has taken shape right in our own back yard," said Harry Lee James, deputy executive director of MDOT. "We hope the television documentary will inspire future generations of engineers and encourage people to learn more about the Mississippi Delta and its history. And, as we are grateful for the efforts of those who documented construction of the original bridge, we also seek to preserve this very unique event for future generations," said James.

“Being able to watch construction close up and to climb all over the bridge was a privilege and the experience of a lifetime,” says the documentary’s writer and producer, Jeff Herzer of HNTB Corporation. “Our program will put viewers in the middle of the action in some incredible settings. While the documentary is primarily about how the bridge was built, we are very much framing it in where the bridge was built,” says Herzer. “The Mississippi Delta is a unique place with a history and a lore about which people there feel very deeply.”

Singer/songwriter Steve Azar's music speaks frequently to life on the Delta and along the Mississippi River.  Azar and his band provide music for the program, including two previously unreleased songs and versions of other Azar favorites recorded especially for the documentary.  "I'm very excited to be involved with this program because my life and my roots are so embedded in this place and because the old Greenville Bridge is a very personal thing for me," says Steve Azar. "We used to camp out under the bridge and I wrote a lot of songs there. It was a place for inspiration."

The original Greenville Bridge and the construction site of the new bridge were both seen in Azar's 2003 music video "Waitin' On Joe," which featured Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman and was nominated for the Country Music Association's Video of the Year. Azar's musical credits include "I Don't Have To Be Me ('Til Monday)," a No. 2 Billboard country music hit. A new album titled "Indianola", Azar's most personal commentary yet on his Delta roots, is set for release in 2007.

Information on the "Second Crossing" documentary will be available on the Greenville Bridge web site, www.greenvillebridge.com as the release date approaches.

HNTB Corporation is a national, employee-owned infrastructure firm that offers comprehensive design, engineering and planning services to federal, state and local public and private clients. Nearly 3,000 professionals in more than 60 offices nationwide provide design and planning expertise for highway, bridge, airport, construction management and urban planning and design projects. For more information about HNTB Corporation, visit www.hntb.com.

Press contacts and resources:

For HNTB Corporation: Jeff Herzer, Writer/Producer, (816)527-2665 or jherzer@hntb.com

For MDOT: Lisa Siegel, Deputy Director External Affairs, (601)359-7017 or lsiegel@mdot.state.ms.us