Jackson Free Press

Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. wants to improve the city's water capacity with a 1.5 million gallon water tower at the corner of Fortification Street and Mill Street to be completed in July 2014.

Southern Consultants designed the tower and Caldwell Tanks, a company out of Louisville, Ky., will build it. The tower is being built on a 24-inch water line that feeds both the midtown and downtown areas.

"We think this tank will improve fire protection in the area and fire protection for the capitol complex." Johnson said. "It will also help in the case of a major water-line break by supplying more water to this area and the capitol complex."

In January of 2010, more than 150 breaks in water lines across the city slowed water flow in Jackson faucets to a drip. Public works director Dan Gaillet said the tower, along with some other improvements the city is making, should help prevent a similar situation.

"(With this tower) we're adding to the available water supply," Gaillet said. "It will also add pressure to the system. One of the issues back in 2010 when we had broken water lines and we were without water for a week was there were so many breaks that it just overwhelmed the system. With this and some of the other improvements we are making around the city, we'll have enough water to flood the system in case of an emergency and keep the taps flowing."

The base of the composite tower will be concrete and the bowl atop the structure will be steel. The construction, likely to be noisy, is taking place right next to the Fortification Street location of the city's Head Start Program, so the city is purchasing new playground equipment for the students.

The $3.45 million project is funded by money allocated by the Mississippi Legislature in 2010 to improve the Capitol Complex, which includes the state capitol and related buildings, accessed through the Mississippi Department of Economic Development. The state's bond issue designated $6 million toward improvements to the Capitol Complex, and Johnson said the remainder of the money will go to replace pipes around the state capitol.

The city is also in the process of adding a 54-inch water line from the O.B. Curtis Water Plant in Ridgeland to the Jackson Fewell Treatment Facility on Laurel Street, and they are adding a new line from Fewell that will run to Jefferson Street. Those lines, along with a new tank on TV Road in south Jackson, should be able to avoid another 2010 situation.

"We expect to have all that online by the end of the year," Gaillet said. "We've made $30 million in improvements in just the last couple of years and this year. It will get to the point that if we go through the 2010 event again, we won't lose the system."