Bridge repair on Old Canton Road will cost nearly $500,000

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The road slide on Old Canton Road right next to a bridge that goes over the Hanging Moss Creek is now a road crater.

Last week, 3 On Your Side reported on the issue for the first time, but the issue has been going on for almost three months now. It is only getting worse over time with the rainfall the capital city has experienced.

Jackson’s One-Percent Commission was supposed to meet last week to discuss the issue and vote on necessary funds to begin construction.

The group did meet, but not enough members were present for the vote.

“Mr. Lee wanted to and do an emergency declaration. Go ahead and get a contract, don’t wait. As quick as we could, it needed to get done now, it’s going to get worse. Well, evidently, that was an important thing in March, but it wasn’t in April,” said Pete Perry, a One-Percent Commission board member.

Robert Lee, the city’s interim Public Works Director, told WLBT that the problem was up. Until last week’s meeting, the cost of the project hadn’t been determined.

Now it has, and he’s asking the One-Percent Commission for over $478,000 for repairs.

“The key is, as soon as the commission can meet and consider it, we’re ready to move forward with the proposal from the contractor. That area will be stabilized and repaired from all the dirt and soils, and then the road itself, that right hand lane going north, the carbon gutter, the asphalt, will all be put back together, just like it was,” said Lee.

Even if the funds were already approved, the City Council would still have to approve a contract in order for work to begin.

Lee and the One-Percent Commission will discuss funding once again in May’s meeting.

Lee and Perry both informed WLBT that the box culvert underneath the road, which allows the water to flow from Hanging Moss Creek, isn’t damaged, which means once construction finally starts, the process should move swiftly.

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