Jackson Free Press

JACKSON — Over the last year, the Eastover Drive water main has busted more than 20 times, leading to water loss, boil-water notices and repeated trips by city crews to mend the 60-year-old pipe.

Mayor Tony Yarber, along with contractors, a 1-percent sales-tax commissioner and others, stood in front of the television cameras Tuesday and shoveled the first loads of dirt for the replacement of line with a 12-inch water main that will stretch from where Eastover meets the Frontage Road on the west, then for 5,030 feet east all the way to Ridgewood Road.

"It is not only the ground-breaking of the 1 percent, for this particular project, or projects in general," Yarber said, "but it is also to celebrate the fact that we have a water line that has experienced at least 20 breaks over the last year that is now being replaced."

Yarber said this would allow the City's crews to be "free and flexible to go and do other things around the city."

"We are just excited about it," he said. "It is the 1 percent sales tax, the money of our citizens. It is at work, and we are seeing work like this being done all around the city, and this is just one of those monumental situations."

The city's data site lists the total cost for the project as $1.3 million, a derivative of the 1-percent sales-tax fund, and says that a second stage of the project will upgrade a 6-inch pipe to a 10-inch pipe for another 870 feet.

"On behalf of the public-works department, this is a project that has been in the works for some time, and it is good to actually get to the point of this ground-breaking," Jerriot Smash, interim director of Public Works said. "This will be upsizing the water lines to 12-inches, basically from the Frontage Road all the way to Ridgeway Road, which will be a great benefit to the development we have here at the District at Eastover, as well as the state facilities and the residential facilities."

The District at Eastover, a residential and commercial project led by the 1-percent commissioner, Ted Duckworth, sits to the north of Eastover Drive. To the south of the road sits the Mississippi School for the Blind as well as the Mississippi School for the Deaf. Duckworth was not present for the ground-breaking ceremony. An office representative said that he was out of the country for the week. Calls to a co-manager for the project were not returned by press time.

"Our water crews have been out here several times for water-line breaks, and it will be significant to actually get a new line in here that is complete, that will not be suspect to having the same issues that we had with the previous line," Smash said.

Southern Consultants Inc. planned the project for the City. The company, represented by President Susan Lunardini, was also involved in the contract with Trilogy Engineering to develop the corrosion control study to address the elevated lead levels in Jackson's water.

"I know that this has been a maintenance-intensive area, and we are pleased to be replacing it," Lunardini said.

Michael Boerner, a principal of Weir Boerner Allin Architecture and a member of the 1-percent sales-tax commission, was also on hand for the ceremony.

"As resident of Jackson and a business owner of Jackson, on top of being a part of the sales tax commission, we are really excited to see this project underway. We have a lot of projects that we are ready to get going," Boerner said.

John Dinkins, a member of the Jackson Redevelopment Authority, lives in the area.

"This is a big day for me personally. These are the streets I rode my bike on as a kid, and my kids ride their bikes on it now," Dinkins said. "I know it takes time, and I know that sometimes we seem impatient, but I know there is a lot of work that's gone into putting all of this together."

"This is just the start to see that the foundation is built," Dinkins said, adding that the water main will contribute to other development, like the District at Eastover.

The Jackson City Council unanimously approved the project during a Dec. 1, 2015, meeting.

Email city reporter Tim Summers Jr. at [email protected]. See more local news at jfp.ms/localnews.