NATCHEZ, Miss. – The mayor and city aldermen are planning to repair several downtown streets that include Main, Franklin, Canal and Homochitto. They agreed Tuesday to seek proposals from contractors on how much it’ll cost to do the work.
This is an addition to the $6 million resurfacing project that began last August for about 50 other Natchez streets.
The new round of streetwork is to include Main Street from Broadway to Martin Luther King; Franklin from Broadway to MLK; Canal from the railroad to Madison; Homochitto from the railroad to MLK. Also in line to be patched: the one-block sections of Rankin, Union, Commerce, Pearl and Wall streets between Main and Franklin.
This “microseal” project involves putting a new coat on existing asphalt pavements to repair and seal cracks. New divider stripes will also be applied. Such work is not as extensive as the project begun last year to put new asphalt pavements on various city thoroughfares, such as Cemetery Road, Liberty Road, Melrose-Montebello Parkway, Auburn, Fatherland, Arlington and Jefferson Davis.
Plans are also underway for repairing the Canal Street bridge, the 64-year-old span that engineers have deemed unsafe for heavy vehicles. Hopes are for plans to be drawn up by late May so contractors can be sought to rehabilitate it, said Mayor Dan Gibson. He said state funds might be allocated for this short-term fix by the Mississippi Legislature, which is finishing its 2024 session later this month. Gibson has said the bridge will eventually have to be replaced.
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