Sheets of metal now stabilize an area next to an entrance at an upscale Jackson apartment complex.
The metal, known as sheet piles, was hammered into place to prevent erosion because there is a sinkhole in the city right-of-way near the driveway to The Quarter House apartments off Lelia Drive.
Justin Peterson, president of The StateStreet Group, the Jackson-based real estate development company responsible for The Quarter House, brought the problem to the attention of the Jackson City Council during its May 20 meeting.
He read an email he sent on April 26 to an employee of the public works department to say the sinkhole needed attention. He said his email brought no response from the city and he wanted to make sure council members knew about the sinkhole in need of repairs.
Emad Al-Turk, owner of Al-Turk Planning and Development, which has a contract to provide services that would typically be provided by the city’s engineering division, suggested he contact the city council, Peterson said.
Louis Wright, then chief administrative officer for the city, responded during the council meeting that “we did meet on this” and there was a plan going forward.
Since the council meeting, The StateStreet Group paid for a construction company to hammer in place the sheet piles next to the driveway, Peterson said.
The city agreed to repair the sinkhole after several meetings were held, but the repair isn’t a simple one.
A collapsed stormwater pipe in the city’s right-of-way appears to have caused the problem, but more exploration work must be done before repairs can be made, Peterson said. JXN Water, not the city of Jackson, would be responsible for the repair if the collapsed pipe happens to be a sewer pipe.
The close of the administration of Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba on June 30 and the start of the administration of John Horhn now factor in when it comes to getting a repair made.
Ashby Foote, who represents Ward 1 on the city council, said the outgoing administration was less responsive than what it should have been when it came to the repairs.
Foote recalled a major sinkhole that occurred in 2019 at the intersection of Ridgewood Road and Lelia Drive that was caused by the collapse of a storm drain.
“The city spent $850,000 repairing that sinkhole,” he said. “One lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t wait around and hope it gets better. Sinkholes always get worse. It’s cheaper to fix them right away.”
Unfortunately, the sinkhole near The Quarter House isn’t the only one in the city.
“There are sinkholes all over the city caused by storm water or sanitary sewer collapses,” said Pete Perry, a member of the One Percent Infrastructure Tax Commission.
The commission has encountered at least one during its work to resurface neighborhood streets and repair curbs and gutters.
Michael Gray-Lewis, a forensic civil engineer and resident of Rolling Wood, hopes the new administration will create a plan that includes a contractor who can use a camera to inspect culverts throughout the city that have issues that could cause them to fail.
If caught before a collapse, there are minimally invasive ways to make repairs to infrastructure before it collapses and those repairs usually cost less than what a repair to a sewer collapse does, he said.
“Now is the time for the city to do it because it doesn’t have to worry about the drinking water or sewer systems since JXN Water handles those,” he said.
Gray-Lewis said he spent two years sending numerous letters and emails to city leaders and met with some of them, asking the city to repair a sinkhole in Rolling Wood subdivision.
“I was screaming for two years about it until they finally had enough of me,” he said.
The city declared the repair of the sinkhole that was adjacent to the residential structure at 135 Yucca Drive an emergency in February 2024 and made repairs. Last week, it appeared as if the city had returned to shore up the work by adding sand, he said.
Since that repair was made, a four-foot by four-foot sinkhole has developed next to his house, he said.
About two years ago, Gray-Lewis studied the plat of Rolling Wood subdivision to familiarize himself with the locations of the culverts that were installed decades ago, He believes about 25 percent of the front yards in the subdivision have “pitting,” which can be a pre-cursor to a culvert collapse.
The city of Jackson has lacked a public works director and fully-staffed public works department, Gray-Lewis said, and that’s made it difficult to get infrastructure problems resolved.
The public works department needs to implement a system of checks and balances that would prioritize repairs and monitor them to ensure they were done correctly, he said.
“An example of this would be the sinkhole on Yucca Drive” he said. “If it wasn’t for me pointing out that more holes had developed, the city would have never visited that job site again.”
Gray-Lewis believes the new city administration will result in positive change.
“I have faith that this administration will take action to put the right people in management roles and broaden the public works department,” he said.
