Expect the underpass on I-55 North at Northside Drive and Canton Mart Road to be fenced to close off access in coming months.
The Mississippi Transportation Commission awarded Jefcoat Fence Co. in Pearl, which bid $246,807 to do the work, the project at its April 27 meeting.
Because of a nationwide shortage of building materials, Jefcoat expects the fencing at the underpass will not be installed until early fall.
Jefcoat’s bid was the lowest of the three the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) received. GSB Enterprises in Pearl provided a bid of $256,340 and Columbus Fence Co. of Columbus, $425,050.
Michael Flood, public information officer for MDOT, said the fencing will safeguard the structure of the bridge. “It’s to protect the state’s asset and save taxpayer dollars,” he said.
Flood cited trash fires set by vagrants in 2017 under a bridge on Valley Street at I-20 in Jackson that damaged the bridge’s concrete deck and steel girders as a reason why fencing is necessary. The westbound lanes of I-20 in Jackson were shut down for several days so that repairs costing $314,000 could be made.
MDOT also plans to fence the I-55 North underpass at Northside Drive, Flood said, but bids have not been taken on that project.
The I-55 North underpass at Adkins Boulevard was fenced in 2020 after plans to do so were kept quiet.
Emails obtained by the Northside Sun in 2020 showed that the state not only kept its plans to install fences at Adkins Boulevard a secret, but that fencing was installed because the city of Jackson was unable to keep the homeless away from the area.
The emails also revealed a callous attitude toward the homeless on the part of some state transportation employees, with one going as far as saying, “we are kicking the homeless people at Adkins Boulevard to the curb.”
MDOT said fencing was needed to prevent the homeless population from setting up camp there. MDOT had received several complaints from a business owner in the area and looked into the idea for months but would refuse to share details with the public, emails revealed.
The Sun learned of the plans after then Jackson City Attorney Tim Howard announced it at a city council meeting in April 2020. At that meeting, the council was considering an ordinance to ban camping on public property. Howard told members if the city didn’t address the problem, MDOT “would have to erect fencing with razors and they said (it) would be quite unsightly.”
Even after Howard’s announcement, state transportation officials refused to say if they were installing fencing, and that they were only looking into it as an option to address homelessness at the underpasses.
In a May 21, 2020 email, Flood told the Sun that he was “not able to share any details” on plans because he was not aware of them himself. The Sun had contacted Flood a few days prior asking whether MDOT had plans to install the devices.
Although Flood said he was not aware of any plans, a May 18, 2020 email showed otherwise.
In that correspondence, Flood told then MDOT Director of Public Affairs Chris Turner and then Deputy Director of Public Affairs Jas N. Smith that he had no idea where Sun Staff Writer Anthony Warren “had heard about the fence as we held off on mentioning it to him.”
On May 20, 2020, a day before Flood told the Sun he was unaware of plans to build a fence, correspondence revealed that MDOT official Randall Copeland had ordered the transfer of $100,000 into the District Five maintenance account to construct the fence.
In that same email thread, Copeland told Assistant Maintenance Engineer Steve Grantham to “get JW a time frame from the contactor (for) when they will be able to get started and when ... they think they will finish depending on the weather.
“Also, if they need law enforcement to clear out folks when they start work, then we will help with that.”
It was not clear what Copeland’s title was or who JW was. However, the email was sent to Justin W. Chapman. His position with MDOT also is unclear.
Emails exposed MDOT’s attitude toward the vagrants.
Agency Budget Director Byron Flood said, “Tell Allee we are kicking the homeless people at Adkins Blvd. to the curb. This is for a fence to keep them from camping under the bridge,” and that “I have to give the homeless credit. At least they want to be homeless under a nice bridge.” A smiley face emoji was included.
The state began installing the fences at the I-55 underpass at Adkins Boulevard in late July 2020. A-1 Kendrick Fence company was brought on for the work and was paid approximately $84,000.
Plans were signed off on by the Mississippi Transportation Commission, the elected body that governs MDOT, according to Central District Transportation Commissioner Willie Simmons.
Simmons said the fences were needed because he and the agency had received numerous complaints about vagrancy in the area. Simmons couldn’t recall the number of calls he had received.
Cathy Harkins, broker and owner of C.H. & Company Real Estate, at 5760 I-55 North, had emailed the agency numerous times about the homeless problem there. In one email, she asked the state if she and other business owners there could clean it up. MDOT said they could not authorize her to do so.
Correspondence showed MDOT had been in talks with Jackson about cleaning up the area and indicate MDOT had pushed Jackson to pass an ordinance to prohibit vagrants from camping there.
When asked about the fencing in 2020, transportation officials said they were unaware of the city’s plans to pass an ordinance.
However, in April 1, 2020 email, Melinda McGrath, then executive director at MDOT, asked if the city’s ordinance had passed.
She went on to say that the state needed to monitor the underpasses, and if they got worse, to move forward with building the fences.
The administration of Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba introduced its no camping ordinance at the council’s March 31, 2020 meeting. The council approved the measure at its April 14, 2020 meeting.
After the ordinance was passed, the new rules were given little time to take effect, with emails showing MDOT was speeding up the process to get the fences installed.
In May 2020, MDOT officials noted that they would move forward with the Canton Mart underpass next, but no funding had been set aside for the work at that time.
