Colony Park Boulevard is now underway, but the project will take another 18 months before it is complete.
Ridgeland city officials have been working with AT&T to relocate utilities in preparation for the project. Recently, the city approved AT&T to move another line.
“We discovered that they had not told us about a line that has got to be moved for construction of Colony Park Boulevard,” Mayor Gene McGee said. “They will move it and bill us for it. It will be less than $1,000.”
The city’s responsibilities for the project include relocating utilities and acquiring rights of way. Now, the city has turned the project over to the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT), who has bid the project out to Utah Construction.
“They’re clearing and grubbing right now,” Public Works Director Mike McCollum said he’s observed. “They will start construction when they get through that. They’re just clearing the roadway now and cutting to get the road down to the grade (required).”
Clearing and grubbing includes removing trees, stumps, roots and other matter resting on or protruding through the surface of the original ground where construction will take place.
McCollum said relocating utilities and acquiring rights of way took the city two years to complete.
“Right after we completed it, MDOT came in pretty (quickly) and got it awarded.”
THE ENTIRETY of the project’s construction has an estimated cost of $26 million, according to Chris Bryson, city engineer.
Once construction is complete, Colony Park Boulevard will stretch for approximately two miles from Highland Colony to U.S. Highway 51.
A sidewalk and multi-use trail will also run along Colony Park Boulevard.
So far, a section of Colony Park Boulevard and the sidewalk has been built from the Township to Sunnybrook Road because of the MDOT split-diamond interchange project at I-55. The section from Sunnybrook to Highway 51 is the section that will be completed with the $26 million.
Bryson said, “The sidewalk and connector trails along Colony Park Boulevard will connect the Ridgeland High School entrance.”
Once the whole project is complete, there will be a five-foot-wide sidewalk along the north side of the road and a 12-foot-wide multi-use trail along the south side of the road.
