Friday, April 10, 2015

Capitol Street to go two-way

The city of Jackson issued the following press release:


The City of Jackson will open Capitol Street and parts of four other downtown streets to two-way traffic on Saturday, April 18th. Construction crews will be installing the new traffic striping and signage this week.  Multiple message boards have been posted downtown informing motorists of this change.

The streets that will change from one-way to two-way are the following:
- Capitol St from Gallatin St to State St
- Roach St from Pearl St to Capitol St
- Lamar St from Pearl St to Capitol St
- West St from Pearl St to Amite St
- Congress St from Pearl St to Amite St

Motorists and pedestrians will need to be cautious as traffic patterns change. 

Motorists should:
- Pay close attention to all one way and two way signage.
- Drive cautiously on all streets.
- Yield to motorists already in the roundabout.
- Yield to pedestrians in all signalized and roundabout crosswalks.
- Do not stop in traffic or in a roundabout to load or unload passengers.
- Adhere to all bicycle specific signage. Cyclists can use the full travel lane where posted and not just the right side of the travel lane.

Pedestrians should:
- Cross streets only at marked crosswalks. 
- Look both ways before crossing all streets, especially those that are changing from one-way to two-way. 

Although these streets will be open to two-way traffic, there is still some minor work remaining.  Motorists should drive cautiously around construction crews.

Between now and April 18th, crews will be striping these streets for two-way traffic. It is imperative that motorists stay out of closed work zone areas until April 18th. Motorists that park in closed work zones are subject to being towed.

61 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Bold New City!!

Anonymous said...

Waste of Money!!

Anonymous said...

It would be great if they would do something about all of the panhandling downtown during business hours. I can't walk anywhere without getting stopped an average of four times by panhandlers. It's gotten much worse in the last year or so. Yesterday a methhead got mouthy with me because I didn't give him what he deemed as enough money.

Anonymous said...

Not only a waste of money but the round about on Capitol St must have designed by someone on crack.

Anonymous said...

Ben's Boondoggle!!

Anonymous said...

Great! Out of town cops can now chase fleeing felons from Jackson on Capitol Street BOTH WAYS now!!!!

Anonymous said...

1:23 You lie! St Andrew's made a wonderful video about downtown living and such events simply do not occur here.

Signed,

Pollyanna

Anonymous said...

People on this thread: those with literally nothing else to do but to go online and trash a city that they most likely do not live in.

Whoever taught you guys how to type did the world a disservice.

Skeptical said...

I'm old enough to remember when Capitol Street was changed to one-way. It was the result of a study by the Mississippi Research and Development Center, a part of the Institutions of Higher Learning. The study showed Capitol was not wide enough for two-way traffic with parking at the curbs. And the turns were much more complicated with left turns having to cross oncoming traffic. Turn lights were not in use at the time, but the study showed if they were used traffic would be slowed significantly. and the round-about is just plain dumb.

Anonymous said...

It is NOT us who is trashing the city, we are only reflecting on a city that has been trashed.
Putting loopty-loops on Capital St. makes about as much sense as square wheels on a bread truck.

Anonymous said...

2:32. I agree with you. If folks here don't like Jackson, then they can stay away.

Signed,

A Madison Resident

Anonymous said...

@2:32

Unfortunately I have to come to this shit hole to put food on the table for my family as well as put food on the table for god knows who that refuses to get off their ass and work. I'm tired of panhandlers harassing me every time I turn the corner. It is excessive and out of control. Why is that so hard to understand?

Entreprenoodle said...

I like the idea of square wheels on a bread truck. Let's get a grant.

Anonymous said...

2:32 Don't blame the mirror if you're ugly.


And those roundabouts are idiotic. I had to use one or two of them at Christmas time and they really slow down traffic.

Anonymous said...

Bumpkin at 4:27. Look around the country. They are SUPPOSED to slow traffic down. Duh. So fun to get comments for 1950ish people that don't get out much.

Anonymous said...

Who says Mississippi is not becoming more liberal. We are now letting Capitol Street go both ways.

Anonymous said...

Bad use of limited money. Fix a few water lines..

Jim Craig said...

I knew it. It starts by allowing gay marriage. Now even the streets go both ways.

Anonymous said...

They are SUPPOSED to slow traffic down.

Good LORD you are such a BROKEN record. It isn't that we don't get out BEN, it is that after all these years you are the only one who pisses into the wind.

Anonymous said...

Ben who 6:32?? 5:00 here. Who is Ben? Two way streets aren't new. Just new to you necks. WTF. Splain please?

Anonymous said...

I am not a Jackson Basher; quite the opposite. Capitol St. is awful and causes a multitude of problems. I know it is the worst main street of any town or city anywhere.

Anonymous said...

So to you people who hate traffic circles, I have a question: what are your thoughts of the traffic circles by Renaissance in Madison County or by the airport in Rankin County? Do you foam at the mouth about them too? Or do "Republican" counties get a pass?

Anonymous said...

7:44 pm The beauty of downtown Jackson compared to other capitol cities struck me immediately when I moved here.

Apparently, you haven't been to Columbia or Raleigh or Springfield or Tallahassee or St Paul or even Baton Rouge ( and that's just to name a few) that don't hold a candle to Jackson.

You are likely miserable and find something wrong with wherever you are !

But, if you are so unhappy, put out your resume or start your own business! No one is making you work in Jackson! Since you imagine yourself to be so smart and so special, surely you could be happier in Little Rock!

And, there you'll find much much more fodder for your complaints!

No Tractors Allowed said...

The 'traffic circle' (actually they're roundabouts) on Highland Colony can be a nightmare. You either have people sitting forever (having no clue when to enter) or people entering the inside lane intending to exit an outside lane. And to make it worse, anxiety is hightened by the frequent appearance of a cop sitting there waiting to ticket people for not understanding the damned thing.

And, no, the intent is NOT to slow down traffic. The intent is to move traffic without the aid and expense of traffic signals.

Anonymous said...

The problem with the roundabouts is they are too small, just like the one in front of the airport. They only work when they are of a certain size, like the one by Renaissance or over by Jackson State.

Downtown traffic is going to be a cluster.

DC Traffic engineer said...

8:05. The intent downtown IS to slow traffic. I was one of the designers of the project. Safety issues are also prevelant.

You locals do need to get out more, as stated earlier. These projects are not new, just new here. Welcome to 2015, oh ye of ignorance.

Anonymous said...

April 11, 2015 at 8:33 AM
You are a traffic engineer? What is your advice for young people wanting to be a traffic engineer? Should they quit school at the 8th or 9th grade level?

Anonymous said...

Thank you 9:15, for resting 8:33's case. Good work!!

Anonymous said...

Yes, yes, yes the idea is to slow traffic as part of Boondoggle Ben's pipedream that doing so will create a walking shopping area downtown. Bring the folks, bring the kiddies and bring the attitude to shop downtown for the same overpriced gee gaws, trinkets and meals already available at countless other locations in the metro area.

AND the clock keeps ticking said...

Ben Allen, president of Downtown Jackson Partners, said at the press conference that he has seen figures showing that, with all the residential development downtown in the form of loft apartments and condos, that in 10 years there could be as many as 25,000 people living downtown, tripling traffic on Pearl Street and Pascagoula Street.
-- Mississippi Business Journal
-- March 3, 2008

Anonymous said...

8:05 am Pay no attention to the clueless.

We both know they are just not smart enough to figure out how to navigate a roundabout.

They have a hard enough time coping with the familiar and expected!

Anything "new" to them , be it an idea or an innovation or anything that represents change, is very frightening and their emotional response is anger.



Kingfish said...

Anyone notice that after the Elite there are no lights? Street is pitch black for a few blocks.

DC Traffic engineer said...

Not for long 12:05. Decorative lights on the books awaiting agreements from the city and Entergy.

DC Traffic engineer said...

Albeit a bodacious argument, and a colossal recession, 10:44, I think someday those figures will be attained. Please follow the past 10 years in the following cities: Little Rock, Baton Rouge, Chattanooga, Memphis which are sister cities of yours. They attained measurable and explosive downtown residential growth. I believe Jackson is primed for the same, in spite of those that are totally clueless to historic downtown growth indicators, and the small minded arguments they spawn. Take heart. It WILL happen.

Anonymous said...

@ 9:15 AM...I don't think that your employer would support you posting on this site, and certainly not calling someone ignorant for making a comment. Designers working on public projects should grow thick skin. For the Capitol Street project, some of the criticism is certainly deserved.

DC Traffic engineer said...

2:16 surely you meant me at 8:33. I could care less that you do not want my measured comments, much unlike some of the mental midgets here doing same.

Anonymous said...

2:14 if you were paid for thinking give back the money. you know nothing.

Anonymous said...

To the Rankin/Madison roundabout poster... All roundabouts in the area are horrible and ill designed. Roundabouts are supposed to be so big that there is a steady flow. Think Paris, Cairo, Turkey.
To the engineer. I'm sorry but I have yet to see anything like this in these other cities. They may slow traffic in Memphis; but they didn't do it with god-awful girl scout cookie sized circles in the middle of an intersection. To even call these roundabouts are an offense to roundabouts.
And who is your inspector? The brickwork is uneven, the curbs are not uniform and some of the medians are crooked.
This is not a good design, and it will be studied at MSU as a what not to do case study.

Redneck Engineer said...

This so-called DC Engineer is an ignorant wannabe. A roudabout was never designed to slow traffic. They existed in England and other countries dacades ago as an aid to moving traffic along in an (supposedly) orderly flow without every intersection quadrant having to have expensive lights or four way stop signs. Had nothing to do with slowing down traffic.

Sit off to the side of the one on Highland Colony at Old Agency for thirty minutes and tell me how effective these things are in redneck land.

Anonymous said...

This is going to revitalize the ambulance chasing business!

Anonymous said...

The entire project is an enormous boondoogle. And whoever said it was designed by idiots on crack is correct. And that stupid video by that big church downtown is a bunch of hooey. The panhandlers run downtown.

Anonymous said...

2:37 is dead on re: mental (and rural) midgets. You can take a person out of the country, but you can't take the redneck out of the person. OMG Jackson is thriving!!!

Anonymous said...

OMG Jackson is thriving!!!

OMG Where?

DC Traffic engineer said...

4:56 I am a 260k/year consultant "wanna be". Read that again and get egg from small minded, ignorant face. I know KNOW of what I speak. You have nothing but ignorant opinions, as does 6:21. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

A grossly overpaid consultant considering the work product.

Anonymous said...

"Unfortunately I have to come to this shit hole to put food on the table." Are there no jobs in Rankin and Madison?

Citizen's Arrest said...

The amount of money a man is able to rip off a government body for has absolutely no correlation with his ability to perform a useful function.

What sort of stupid appeal-fallacy is that? I make 260k (a lie) a year telling people what they want to hear so I must have opinions that supercede, in validity, those of the rest of you.

You remain in a factless vacuum if you still believe roundabouts exist to slow down traffic or that ones the size of a master bedroom can ever be considered efficient, especially in a mid-town war zone.

Now, get back to your cappuccino with Ben and order some bidness cards with bullet points.

Anonymous said...

Posts from a lonely man, at 1:24 in the morning. Sad.

DC Traffic engineer said...

1:24 AM I will be in Jackson this Friday and will be happy to discuss with you. Game?? Or scared.....We can record it and post our conversation.

Anonymous said...

DC Traffic Engineer at 2:14 - you comment about the EXPLOSIVE growth in other cities and you mention Chattanooga. Well... I grew up in Chattanooga, graduated from UTC and go back regularly to visit. In fact I was there in February - my wife is also from Chattanooga. Chattanooga has many things that going for it that Jackson will never have and the biggest thing was and is competent elected city and county officials. The primary reason downtown Chattanooga made the resurgence was Mayor Bob Corker, now Senator Corker (TN). How do you think he got to be Seantor! Jackson cannot even fix their basic plumbing infrastructure. Resurgence? - you need to stop smoking the pipe dream substance you apparently turn to before traffic design sessions.

I live in Jackson. Yes, I should have my head examined.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget Chattanooga Mayor (and developer) John Kinsey, who with Henry Turley, masterminded Mud Island in Memphis.

We have ZERO help I our state legislators regarding leadership, when in fact, the Jackson delegation is useless.

DC Traffic engineer said...

Yet another nail in the coffin for downtown. Nothing is ever happening there. No one will invest in that hell hole.

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2015/apr/14/proposed-capitol-street-lofts-get-tax-credits/

Please note the comments FROM A NATIONAL DEVELOPER regarding the efforts to 2 way the street.

Anonymous said...

Tax credits = Developer welfare

Anonymous said...

GAME OVER

Despite strong opposition from city of Jackson officials, the Mississippi Environmental Quality Board voted unanimously to award a permit to the West Rankin Utility Authority (WRUA) allowing it to construct a new wastewater treatment plant for its 100,000 customers in Rankin County.

Madison County will be next.

Anonymous said...

4:10 - you are correct - Game Over. The hits will just keep coming. Sharks are circling and there is blood in the water.



Anonymous said...

However, not all Capitol Street occupants are as optimistic about the ongoing changes.

Lina Lynn, the owner of the Japanese eatery Wasabi a few blocks west, said the nearly two years’ worth of construction has caused her business to lose a substantial number of customers and she doesn’t think they’ll be coming back.

“I wish it’d never started,” Lynn said, noting she would have preferred the city invest in tourism and other efforts.

Kingfish said...

I've been there several times recently. Place has been dead. Food is too good, service is too good, and place is too clean for it to be doing so poorly. I don't know how much longer it can make it.

DC Traffic engineer said...

7:39. The city invested $710,000 and received $9,000,000 in infrastructure improvements. Pipes, sewerage, cyber, resurfacing etc. Pretty good trade. Progress is a bitch (see High Street or Fortification)

Anonymous said...

DC Traffic Engineer... You can actually drive down Fortification and High St. BOOM. Drops the mic.

While you're at it... Find the crappy roundabouts in Chattanooga
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Chattanooga,+TN/@35.043278,-85.2997814,3970m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x886060408a83e785:0x2471261f898728aa

Anonymous said...

Late coming to this party, but the round-about on Highland Colony at Renaissance needs to be marked on the pavement. If you are headed south at north round-about entrance, the signage says to only use the middle lane which means you must circle past the south Highland Colony exit and then cross over outer lane and on-coming from yield land to get to the I55S exit. (figure that out you $260K DC Traffic engineer. Perhaps you suggested this signage. If it was clearly painted on the lanes which ones go to Ridgeland East and which one goes to I55S and which to take going to Highland Colony South, then there would not be a problem. It isn't "rednecks" it is improper instructions by the signs.

Anonymous said...

Well capitol street is open and is great!


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