After years of warm-up, work is about to get underway to improve drainage on Northside.
Columbus City Council approved the first step in drainage remediation work in the area of the Columbus Brick during Tuesday night’s meeting.
The city obligated $3 million of its approximately $5.6 million American Rescue Plan Act money in February 2022 to alleviating some of the city’s chronic drainage problems. It also received $450,000 from Lowndes County.
The city received about $2.8 million in matching funds from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, Chief Financial Officer James Brigham told The Dispatch during Mayor Keith Gaskin’s Wednesday morning press conference.
About $175,000 will go toward this first phase of the project, Brigham said. He said the total project cost is estimated to be $5.5 million.
The area in question includes parts of Wards 4 and 5. It is bounded on the west by a ridge parallel to Military Road; on the south by College Street; by Highway 82 to the north; and on the east by a line running north from College near 19th Street North, then along 20th Street to 14th Avenue, then west to Railroad Street and then eventually runs north to Bluecutt Road.
Brigham said Waggoner Engineering, who won the contract to oversee the city’s ARPA work, will first look at the existing drainage. He characterized this first phase as “exploratory.”
Waggoner will use CCTV to review the internal condition of buried drainage infrastructure, Brigham explained, and develop recommendations and opinions on the cost for repair and rehabilitation.
At least some cleanout of ditches and infrastructure will be involved, Brigham said.
Brigham said the work will begin immediately.
“It will get underway as soon as the mayor signs the contract,” Brigham said. “It needed to be started yesterday.”
The first phase is expected to last about six weeks, he said. Design should be finalized by about 12 weeks out from the notice to proceed, and the job will be put out to bid within about 20 weeks.
“The key here is that all of this adds up to contracts being awarded in 22 weeks,” Brigham said. “The ARPA funds have to be obligated by Aug. 24 or they go back to the federal government, and this schedule just beats that.”
Gaskin said the work is long overdue.
“We’ve known since the 1970s that our infrastructure is poor,” Gaskin said. “These two areas are among several critical areas we identified, and (Waggoner) worked with council members to determine what we would focus on. There are a lot of individuals in this area who experience major flooding in their homes.”
“That won’t fix the city’s problems, but it’s a good start,” Brigham said. “We’re going to continue to ask the federal and state government for more money to continue our efforts to reduce the flooding.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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