Pedestrians along the East and West I-55 Frontage Roads could find travel safer in the coming years after improvements funded by a nearly $20 million federal grant are made.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) received a $19,947,355 Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) Grant to make improvements that include:
Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant sidewalks on the East and West I-55 Frontage Roads;
Pedestrian crossings at County Line Road and Briarwood Drive over the interstate and at Canton Mart Road and Northside Drive under the interstate;
Raised medians with pedestrian refuge islands;
Marked pedestrian crossings, safety signage, crossing push buttons and displays, and lighting for sidewalks;
Glare screen fencing on top of the existing I-55 concrete median barrier.
The pedestrian fatality rate along the project corridor is three times higher than the state average, according to a fact sheet about the grant.
At the time of grant application last year, there had been 18 pedestrian fatalities since 2019 in the project area, said Michael Flood, a spokesperson for MDOT.
Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade said Jackson has a large transient population concentrated in the north Jackson area and the sidewalks, lighting and other improvements should help prevent deaths that result from a driver in a vehicle hitting someone on foot.
“When you’re struck by a vehicle going 50, 60 miles an hour on the highway the likelihood of survival is low,” he said. “It’s very traumatic for everyone.”
Scott Crawford, Ph.D., an accessibility advocate, said the improvements that are to come are a “promising development” that he and others have sought for more than a decade.
In 2023, the city of Jackson, the Central Mississippi Planning and Development
District, the Federal Highway Administration, the Mississippi Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities, Disability Rights of Mississippi, Hinds County Economic Development and JTRAN worked to produce a Pedestrian Interstate Mobility Plan.
A timeline has not been set for the work, Flood said. A fact sheet about the RAISE Grant gives June 2028 as an estimate for the start of construction.
“It’s still very early in the process,” Flood said. “I’m told it will take a few years to complete the pre-construction phase.”
Exactly where along the frontage roads the sidewalks would go is still to be determined, Flood said.
Crawford, a retired clinical neuropsychologist who uses a wheelchair because he has multiple sclerosis, hopes that the project designers will consult pedestrians who use the I-55 corridor when they plan the improvements.
Crawford has worked with the city of Jackson to ensure that projects are ADA-compliant. He studied the sidewalks along a newly constructed segment of Riverside Drive to make sure they were done right.
The project could result in a reduction in carbon dioxide emission because of a shift to “active transportation modes by increasing pedestrian access,” according to the grant fact sheet.
Wade said he also believes in the project because sidewalks make it easy for people to take walks for fitness reasons and that can be good for their health. “We all know that sidewalks can benefit a community health wise,” he said.
