A “Sun Spot” by the late Publisher Sam Warren in the Feb. 16, 1975, Northside Sun noted:
“SMOOTH!
“Rollingwood folks we talked to the other night were all bragging about Old Canton Road’s new smooth surface. They’re pleased with the resurfacing recently completed by the city.”
Fifty-one years have passed since that time and Old Canton Road is now five lanes instead of two, but few Jackson residents would brag about the smooth ride along Old Canton Road.
“If you drive on it right now, it’s a mix of patch jobs done over the last three or four years,” said Michael Gray-Lewis, a resident of Rollingwood who travels Old Canton Road every day.
“It’s a rocky and rough drive. That road is a major lifeline in Ward 1.”
Two years ago, the city took a step forward toward improving Old Canton Road from Canton Mart Road to County Line Road, but no funds have been set aside for the actual work that needs to be done.
In July 2023, the Jackson City Council hired a Jackson civil engineering firm to draw up plans for a project to resurface and improve that 3.4-mile stretch of Old Canton Road.
The council authorized the mayor to execute an agreement with CiViLTech, a Jackson engineering firm founded by Elmore Moody, for $1 million in engineering services related to Old Canton Road.
The One Percent Sales Tax Commission agreed to fund the engineering services, including the design of roadway milling of asphalt pavement and placement of asphalt overlay, nine intersection improvements for signalization upgrades to traffic lights, design of Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant ramps and concrete sidewalk improvements, the design of base and subbase repairs and driveway modifications and design of striping, traffic control and other incidental items.
“We knew the construction wasn’t going to be done any time soon,” recalled Pete Perry, a member of the commission, which in recent years has funded many of the city’s road improvement projects.
“There was no grand scheme that said in July 2026 we’ll work on it. We knew it wasn’t going to be any time soon.”
To improve Old Canton Road would be a major project and the cost would be, too.
Perry estimates the project could cost as much as $10 million to $11 million and that one project could use up the total amount the 1 percent sales tax generates in a year.
The city collects about $15 million a year from the 1 percent sales tax, which does not include sales tax related to hotels, bars or restaurants in the city. About $4 million of the $15 million goes to pay off a bond, leaving $11 million to fund annual infrastructure projects.
“It would eat all of that up,” Perry said, if milling and resurfacing and other improvements were done at one time on that entire stretch of Old Canton Road.
The 1 percent sales tax was meant to supplement what the city spends from the general fund on infrastructure but the city hardly spends anything in comparison to the funding by the commission.
The city sets aside just 1 mill in its budget for infrastructure improvements, which amounts to about $1 million annually, Perry said.
Twenty-five years ago, the city set aside 13 mills a year, but that number was slashed to balance the budget, and the 13 mills was never restored in the budget, he said.
“The city spends more from the general fund on keeping the zoo open than it does on infrastructure,” Perry said, noting that the city has 2,200 lane miles of road, about 135 bridges and more than a dozen creeks and tributaries that require upkeep.
When the commission began in 2021 shifting its focus from improvements to major arteries (after it had funded projects to improve many of them) to neighborhood streets, there was discussion that some arterial streets still needed to be improved such as Old Canton Road, he said.
“We recognized that and said, ‘Let’s go ahead and get the engineering done,”’ Perry said.
“We weren’t going to push it up ahead of finishing the neighborhood streets program,” said Ted Duckworth, a member of the commission.
The commission is currently focused on resurfacing neighborhood streets.
The first phase of the neighborhood street project is almost done and the second and third phases have been under way since May.
The second phase of work includes neighborhoods in central and south Jackson, and the third phase includes streets in northeast Jackson.
When the commission determines it’s ready to fund Old Canton Road, the project could be broken down into three sections, Duckworth said, which would be a way to manage it.
Road projects are sometimes handled like that because every section may not be in the same condition and require the same amount of work, he said.
The expense of road projects can be leveraged by applying for funds from other agencies such as the Metropolitan Planning Organization, Duckworth said. Funding from that organization requires a 20 percent match, which the one percent commission has provided for several projects.
Hinds County Supervisor Robert Graham, who represents District 1 and serves as president of the board, said he would like to see all of Old Canton Road paved.
“It’s a major corridor,” he said. “It would complement the paving Hinds County has done in Jackson.”
Graham, who expects the project will cost a “pretty penny,” said he plans to work with Jackson Mayor John Horhn on making improvements to the city and combating crime.
“Mayor Horhn and I have known each other and our philosophies are the same about constituent services,” he said. “I know he knows what he’s doing.”
Before a major project such as Old Canton Road should be undertaken, the city needs to hire a public works director, whose duties would include managing major projects, both Perry and Duckworth said.
The city has not had a full-time public works director since Robert Lee, who left in 2024 to take a job on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Both Perry and Duckworth believe Horhn, who is just into a month on the job, will be able to hire a qualified public works director.
Gray-Lewis, a forensic civil engineer, hopes that a thorough investigation of Old Canton Road and any underlying infrastructure problems will be done before any milling and resurfacing. “That would help prevent unexpected repair costs,” he said.
He would also like to see road repairs improved so they are of a higher quality than what they currently are.
“That’s part of having the right person as the public works director,” Gray-Lewis said. “I’d like to hear more about that, too.”
