Work on a much anticipated project to improve one of the Northside’s busiest thoroughfares is expected to get under way early next month.
Weather permitting, work on the North State Street Reconstruction Project is expected to begin in about two weeks.
The $19.6 million project will include rebuilding a roughly two-mile stretch of the roadway from Hartfield Street to Sheppard Road.
Last week, orange and white barriers with “HCC” stencils had been put up along the project’s footprint.
Hemphill Construction Company was awarded the contract last fall.
The project also calls for adding new multi-use trailers and replacing and rehabbing the water and sewer lines underneath the street.
Utility companies have been relocating power and communications lines in recent weeks to make ready for the project, city officials said.
Crews are expected to begin at Sheppard Road and continue south to Hartfield Drive and will be completed in phases.
The project is expected to be completed by 2020.
Construction will be done under traffic, meaning at least one lane will be opened for traffic heading in both directions.
The project is being paid for in part with a $19.5 million “Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery” or TIGER Grant.
Jackson received an initial $16.5 million TIGER Grant from the Federal Highway Administration in 2015. The amount was increased to $19.5 million last year.
Funds from the federal award are also being used to pay for the West County Line Road project, which includes widening that roadway and building a new rail cross bridge that will allow vehicles to travel underneath the railroad rather than over it.
Both projects have sparked debate among city leaders. Some have been concerned about the work’s overall cost, while others have questioned how to pay for the work. Still some leaders question why so much money is being spent on two sections of roadway when the city has billions of dollars in infrastructure needs.
Combined, North State and West County Line are expected to run about $42 million.
The additional $21.5 million will come from other federal grants as well as dollars from Jackson’s one-percent infrastructure sales tax.
Last year, the city’s one-percent oversight commission allocated $6 million in one-percent revenues for the projects.
And at a council meeting last fall, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the rest of the funds would likely be raised by taking on long-term debt.
Plans are to use a portion of remaining one-percent dollars as leverage for bonds, which will be used for the TIGER projects and other needs, he explained at the time.
The city had not decided how much in bonds it would issue at press time.
“It’s not a question of if we’ll be able to leverage but how much,” Lumumba said. “In any scenario, it far exceeds the amount required for this particular project.
The North State project will include reducing the four-lane roadway to two lanes from Hartfield to Choctaw Road, and to two lanes and a turn lane from Choctaw to Sheppard.
A 10-foot wide multi-use path will be added along the southbound lane between Hartfield and Northside, and along the northbound lane from Northside to Sheppard.
Work will be done in existing right-of-way.
The projects are moving forward ahead of schedule. According to the TIGER application, neither were required to begin until 2019.
