NATCHEZ, Miss. — Aldermen have approved the list of 75 Natchez streets to repave using $6 million borrowed through bonds. Work is expected to begin next spring on the streets ranked as the most needy for new pavement.
Cemetery Road tops the list issued Tuesday and is joined by sections of Brenham Avenue, Liberty Road, Margaret Avenue, Melrose-Montebello Parkway, North Rankin, Auburn, Fatherland, Arlington, Jefferson Davis and more.
While the list totals 75 streets, all will not be resurfaced in this round, said Mayor Dan Gibson. The costs for all streets exceed the $6 million in bonds the Board of Aldermen sold to generate revenues for the street-overlay project.
The work will be concentrated on sections of the roughest residential streets in Natchez. “We’re trying to do our best for the worst,” Gibson said.
Gibson said he and aldermen will seek roadbuilders’ bids in the coming weeks for the board to select and contract for the job, but it’s likely the asphalting work won’t begin until spring after the winter weather ends.
Natchez has an inventory of 480 streets. This round of street overlays is considered the largest such project Natchez has undertaken in recent years. City street repavement projects in recent years were in 2019 and 2018, when the board allocated about $490,000 from revenues Natchez receives leasing city-owned land to Magnolia Bluffs Casino.
Two other road projects also making progress are the rebuilding of Silver Street and enhancements for Morgantown Road. The city was awarded nearly $2 million for this last week by the Mississippi Department of Environment Quality to ensure the projects are fully funded.
City officials have joined with the Adams County Board of Supervisors to get funds for a one-mile stretch of the high-traffic Morgantown Road to be reconstructed to make it wider and less prone to rain-induced flooding.
MDEQ awarded about $900,000 for the Morgantown project. The funds will be combined with $2.4 million allocated by the U.S. Congress earlier this year and $900,000 budgeted by the city and county boards to finally have the money needed to get it done.
For Silver Street, MDEQ awarded Natchez $1 million to help the city rebuild a section of it to avert Mississippi River floodwater. The $2.5 million street-raising project had been stalled because of higher-than-expected costs.
The state water infrastructure funds will be combined with city funds along with $500,000 committed by Viking and American Cruise Lines for accommodating their riverboats that dock on Silver Street and use it for busing passengers to tour Natchez.
Gibson said work on Silver Street is expected to begin later in 2023 after the river recedes from its normal high-water levels during the spring season.
With the influx of cruise ships now docking here on the river, the Board of Aldermen agreed Tuesday to lease the old Isle of Capri parking lot along D.A. Biglane Street as a staging area for their buses.
There were three riverboats docked in Natchez on Tuesday. Several of the ACL and Viking buses were seen bustling down Silver Street and up Biglane Street to pick up and return passengers touring Natchez.
Gibson praised the Biglane family for their “very generous offer” to allow the public use of their property. In the exchange, the city will take over the parking lot’s grass-cutting duties.
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