JACKSON, MS
Goodbye Yazoo clay, hello smoother streets
Neel-Schaffer was contracted by the City of Jackson to manage a $25 million program to resurface more than 100 lane miles of roads within the City limits. Neel-Schaffer provided engineering, program management, and construction phase services in Wards 1, 2, 6 and 7 for the street improvement project, which was funded by bonds.
Neel-Schaffer managed the program from the beginning, starting with a study/analysis to determine probable construction costs, how to establish a budget and allocate money for each of the City’s seven wards, and how to prioritize which streets would be repaved with this program. Our firm administered three separate construction contracts, one for residential areas in North Jackson, one for residential areas in South Jackson, and one for high-travel roads throughout the City.
Within 60 days of receiving a Notice to Proceed, Neel-Schaffer had the construction contracts in place, and 90 percent of the paving was accomplished over the next three months.
While there was a minimum amount of design work involved in the paving program, Neel-Schaffer engineers were still very involved in the program, with one assigned to administer each of the three contracts. Engineers David Bowman, Xan Cutcliff, and Mauricka McKenzie provided consulting services to the City, working as an extension of the City of Jackson staff. They provided weekly reports at City Council meetings, and were available 24/7 to answer questions from the council members and Jackson residents.
In addition to repaving, some roads received minor reconstruction, with Yazoo clay being removed from the subsurface. Some sidewalks were brought up to ADA code, and some streets received repairs to or replacement of curbs and inlets.
Neel-Schaffer offered full-time observation of the work during the construction phase, to determine if the work was proceeding in accordance with the contract documents and to keep City of Jackson officials informed of the progress of the work. Verification of contract quantities, quality assurance testing, and review of applications for payment were also the responsibility of the engineer.
Additionally, Neel-Schaffer created maps each week of the paving progress, with those maps available to the public via the City of Jackson website.
Included in the project were improvements and resurfacing to arterial streets such as Old Canton Road, Ridgewood Road, Beasley Road, Cooper Road, Terry Road, State Street, and West Street.
West Street, a northbound principal arterial connecting downtown Jackson, was totally reconstructed in one area. Because of Yazoo clay and aging, leaking water lines, driving on West Street near Millsaps College had become like a roller coaster ride, with cars having to slow to a crawl to traverse humps in the crumbling road while dodging potholes and broken asphalt.
Neel-Schaffer provided design and construction services to resurface and repair West Street, from High Street to Meadowbrook Road. The section of West Street from Adelle Street to Woodrow Wilson Avenue (next to Millsaps) was the final piece of the resurfacing and reconstruction project. The section from Millsaps Avenue to Woodrow Wilson Avenue included major subgrade repairs and water line replacement, while the section from Adelle Street to Millsaps Avenue remains as the last section that needs reconstruction.
