Relief could soon be on the horizon for residents living along Belhaven Creek.
The city of Jackson recently began advertising for bids for the first phase of the Belhaven Creek Improvement Project.
Bids are slated to be opened June 2, at Jackson City Hall. If all goes according to plan, the city could hire a contractor sometime this summer, said Jackson Engineering Manager Charles Williams.
Meanwhile, Ward Seven Councilwoman Virgi Lindsay has requested that the project be funded with proceeds from the city’s $40 million infrastructure bond.
“Each member of the council was asked to prioritize 10 projects in their ward, and Belhaven Creek was at the top of my list,” she said.
The city recently was approved for a $40 million infrastructure bond through the Mississippi Development Bank. Once bond attorneys and bond consultants are paid, the city will have about $35 million to work with.
Lindsay was unsure when the bonds would be sold, citing the volatility in the current bond market. However, she was “optimistic that once the economy is restarted and the markets recover, we will be able to tap into that funding quickly.”
The roughly $2 million project is needed to address drainage problems in the Belhaven neighborhood south of Riverside Drive.
Work calls for widening the creek from St. Mary Street to Laurel Street, lining the creek walls with concrete from St. Mary to Piedmont Street, and adding rip rap from Piedmont to Laurel Street.
Widening the creek will increase its capacity, while lining the banks with concrete and rip rap will prevent erosion, Williams previously explained.
Additionally, the project calls for adding a new box culvert under St. Mary, which would help move water downstream during peak flow times.
Crews will have 150 days to complete the work, according to a copy of the bid documents.
Specifications were drawn up by North Jackson-based Southern Consultants. The firm was brought on in 2016, for approximately $225,000. Designs were funded by the city’s one-percent infrastructure sales tax.
Plans for the second phase, which would address the creek farther north, had not been drawn up.
Belhaven Creek serves the Belhaven drainage basin, which runs from Glenway Drive and Lakeland Drive in the north to Pinehurst Street in the south. East to west, the basin stretches from Museum Boulevard to Veterans Memorial Stadium and Millsaps College.
Flooding in the area has gotten worse in recent years, thanks in part to the increased frequency of heavy storms, as well as increased development upstream.
According to the National Weather Service, more than 99 percent of the basin is developed, with 41.58 percent of it being covered with impervious materials, such as concrete.
Those materials do not soak up rainwater like natural ground, increasing runoff that goes into the creek.
That runoff, in turn, is often too much for the drainage way to handle, causing water to back up into residents’ homes and yards.
Officials have been working to address the problem for years. In the last year, Jackson has worked to obtain easements for the project.
Easements are needed so crews can temporarily access the creek via residents’ private properties. Also, the creek would be widened about six feet on both sides, meaning some residents along the body of water would lose about six feet of their back yards.
Williams said the city had obtained all but one easement, but would be able to access the creek where needed based off the easements obtained.
“We have all the right-of-way needed. We’re going to make it work.”
