Commission approves funding for Old Canton, Silas Brown road slides

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Two major road slides in the capital city could soon be fixed, thanks to an allocation from Jackson’s One-Percent Oversight Commission.

On Wednesday, the commission approved spending up to $780,000 to repair road slides at Old Canton Road in North Jackson and Silas Brown Road downtown.

The decision came after about 10 or 15 minutes of discussion at the urging of Public Works Director Robert Lee and Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.

“We may debate about a lot of projects, but these are two known dangers that people are traveling across each and every day,” Lumumba said.

It’s not clear when work would begin. Lee said if the money was approved, he would recommend the city bring on a contractor through its emergency procurement procedures, so the problem doesn’t get any worse, or any more costly to fix.

Lee told the commission the city received proposals to repair the road slides from GeoStabilization International.

The firm estimated it would take $478,189.24 to repair the failure along Old Canton and $295,269 to repair Silas Brown.

The roads have been sloughing off for months. Old Canton’s break began when the wing wall on the box culvert at Hanging Moss Creek broke, causing water from the creek get behind it and wash away the road.

Orange cones are there now, blocking the lane from motorists.

Water from the Pearl River was the culprit behind the failure at the East Silas Brown and near Jefferson Street.

Work in both cases would include stabilizing the areas to prevent additional slides and repairing the streets where they have broken off.

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