The state is moving forward in implementing the CCID master plan, as evidenced by recent hires for seven projects.
The CCID is the Capitol Complex Improvement District. Each year the state will provide an additional allocation to fund public improvements in the district, such as road overlays and beautification.
Last week, the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA), announced it had brought on firms to draw up plans for seven of the plan’s eight projects.
Neel-Schaffer and SOL Engineering were hired to for High Street and Lamar Street; Neel-Schaffer was also brought on, along with Myriad Engineering Services, for the sidewalk improvements along East Capitol Street.
Waggoner Engineering, AJA Consulting and CDFL were hired to pen improvements for Museum Boulevard (Highland Drive) and North State Street; Stantec Consulting was hired to pre-plan work along President Street and North Street; and a SOL Engineering, Volkert and Burns Cooley Dennis were hired to pre-plan the President Street project.
The hires now must be signed off on by the state Public Procurement Review Board, which will meet next on Wednesday, August 7, at 9 a.m.
Engineering for all projects is estimated to cost just under $1.8 million, according to DFA documents.
Designs for High Street/Lamar Street and Museum Boulevard are top priorities, and should be completed by the end of February, according to DFA spokesman Chuck McIntosh.
The remaining projects will require six to eight months of design time for each project, he said.
Projects include either street repaving, street reconstruction or sidewalk repair.
The Museum Boulevard project will include repaving a 3,600-foot section of the roadway from Riverside Drive to where the four-lane boulevard ends.
Lawmakers approved creating the district in 2017, to help offset the city of Jackson’s costs for providing municipal services, like police and fire protection, to state-owned buildings.
A master plan was released earlier this year, to determine how funds in the district would be spent.
Projects are being funded by a special sales tax diversion, which the state will set aside each year for the CCID in perpetuity. Spending was placed under the purview of the DFA, which receives input from a special advisory panel made up of local leaders.
North to south, the CCID runs from Meadowbrook Road to Hooker Street and from Jackson State University in the west to the Pearl River and the LeFleur Museum District in the east.
