Contractors have been a virtual no show in the last few weeks along Briarwood Drive and Ridgewood Road, and Jackson city officials are planning to get to the bottom of it.
Public Works was expected to meet with Superior Asphalt this week to find out why they were not working on a major street resurfacing project.
A time for the meeting was still being hammered out at press time, and the meeting would not be open to the public.
Superior was brought on in 2016, and was awarded a $4.7 million contract to mill and overlay seven major city streets.
Work began on the final two streets, Ridgewood and Briarwood, in May, and were expected to wrap up the work by the end of June.
Fast forward to the end of July, Briarwood and Ridgewood remain unfinished, and contractors have been conspicuously absent, save Monday, July 17. On that day, crews had blocked off a portion of Adkins Boulevard.
Crews quit working about a week into the Briarwood repaving, in part, because of the unusually wet weather, and did not work the week of Independence Day. Afternoon showers the following week likely delayed work as well.
However, the week ending July 22 was hot and dry – ideal for paving.
Ridgewood and Briarwood remain incomplete as a result.
Portions of Briarwood have received the initial coat of asphalt but not the final top coat. The center turn lane along the street had not been repaved, and lanes in front of Chile’s had been milled, but not overlaid.
The construction had created a safety problem in front of the restaurant as well. Until Friday, motorists traveling toward the interstate must slow to a near stop when driving over the spot where the milling ends. Crews with the city added a strip of asphalt there on Friday, temporarily alleviating the problem.
On Ridgewood, the center lanes also had not been repaved, and portions of the street near Adkins had been milled, but not overlaid.
The projects included repaving Briarwood from the I-55 North frontage road to North State Street and Ridgewood from Old Canton road to East County Line Road.
The streets are two of the Northside’s busiest. Ridgewood averages around 9,600 vehicles a day near Old Canton, around 18,000 a day near Adkins Boulevard and around 12,000 a day near Ridgewood Court, according to Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) traffic count maps. Briarwood averages around 9,200, the maps show.
Other streets included in the contract were Northside Drive, Raymond Road, McRaven Road, Greenway Drive and Gallatin Road. Once crews finish up on Briarwood and Ridgewood, they must add a surface coat to Gallatin.
