Jackson Jambalaya

a bridge leaving Jackson?

That's a short-cut for Jackson's thugs.

How long has it been?

That has to be record for the length of time it took to replace.
I think I still lived in NE Jxn when it failed and that was loooong time ago.

@11:35 Lumumba had his rapid response team working on it.

Excellent, another great way for me to slide on over to CCJ.

Is that Colonial?

I think that bridge has been out for 4 or 5 years at least.

Councilman Ashby Foote, perhaps with sotto voce help from Robert Graham (?), patched together about $850,000 in funding for this bridge, nearly 3 years after it collapsed. The original was likely getting heavier truck traffic than designed for originally.

I remember when that was a wonderful area to raise a family.

It's a bridge too far.

Is the contractor a FOC? (Friend of Chowke)

Looks ready for donuts, burnouts, and oil spills from blown engines!

@3:21pm: Are you selectively excluding a readiness for gang graffiti tagging? A new bridge is a blank canvas for radicalized miscreants.

Up on Purple Creek, she sends me
If I spring a leak, she mends me
I don't have to speak, she defends me
A drunkard's dream if I ever did see one

Was this the project where I saw a Fordice Construction sign? That must have pissed off the Mayer somewhat.

Build a guard house with armed security, and make it a toll bridge.

2:47, the contractor is Fordice (as in Governor Kirk) Construction, from my many years as a construction engineer the best bridge contractor in the state. No Fordice would be considered a friend of Chokwe’s, but they might be doing the work as a subcontractor to a minority firm that simply skims a percentage off the top but does no actual work, a quite common scenario.

@7:11 PM - Thank you. My money is on the prime contractor being a friend of Chowke and Fordice is doing the actual work as a sub.

Yes to 2:33. All others should look up the meaning of 'a bridge too far'. It means an unlikely undertaking, an overly ambitious project that won't materialize.

The Old Canton Rd bridge is repaired as well.

The Adkins Blvd bridge was first closed March of 2018 for repairs and closed again in 2021. I would remind everyone that Jackson had more needs than money to address those needs. And, I'm a bit surprised that your anger isn't directed toward truckers and trucking companies who know their trucks are too heavy for small bridges or residential streets but take the short cuts anyway. Adkins is not the first bridge damaged nor will it be the last. And, all of you who complain about Jackson streets ignore that this is "the Crossroads ", it ain't Tupelo or Oxford or Madison. And, in the '60's when some of you left, the trucks weren't 18 wheelers!


7:11 and 7:18 both are honest to admit that skimming on contracts has been common in Mississippi. Given their career experience, I'm surprised that they and their professional associations haven't lobbied to make such practices illegal by improving the bidding system for all state government contracts. The "prime" should have some experience in the doing the "job" being bid upon. And, maybe on this project Fordice won the bid. But, geez, then we'd have to upset whole applecart and some powerful white folks too.

The owner of Fordice Construction now is Donald Roesch of Vicksburg, MS. I'm surprised those familiar with construction in Mississippi don't know that.

I would remind everyone that Jackson had more needs than money to address those needs.

I would remind you that until Jackson spends only to address its mission critical needs then few rational people are going to listen your played out 'more needs than money' economic dirge.

According to MDOT State Aid’s website, the old bridge was a timber stringer (girder) structure on timber piles built in 1993. Wood is a terrible choice for bridge components in our humid climate unless forced to use it because of budgetary constraints. The new bridge, from the photos, appears to be a precast concrete “Choctaw” bridge on prestressed concrete piles. It will be there for a long time, with no worries about any of its components decaying, pretty much regardless of how heavy the trucks are that roll over it.

Pear Orchard Rd, just South of the County Line Walgreens' driveway, had an edge disappearing on the East side, narrowing the roadway by three feet and getting increasingly dangerous for many months. It has been repaired in the last few days, Hallelujah.

Bridge not repaired: Angry.

Bridge repaired: Also Angry.

What an exhausting life the snowflakes lead.

Why would big trucks be traveling that road? Going from where to where?

Big trucks going to Old Canton from I-55 would use it, I would think?

In the 90s when I lived in that formerly nice area...I would wager that a Kroger truck would visit the Kroger at the Adkins Beasley exit on Ridgewood, then use this road to reach the Kroger that used to exist behind the (used to exist) BackYard Burger on Old Canton at Pear Orchard.

Perhaps there is not reason now?
I have no clue what that area looks like now and avoid COJ all together.

10:54, Adkins/Colonial would be a very convenient cut through between the frontage road and Old Canton Road for a big truck making local deliveries, such as a gasoline truck, a refrigerated truck going to convenience stores, etc. If it’s a road, a heavy truck will eventually try it. It brings to mind the 18 wheeler that attempted to make a shortcut across the swinging bridge at Byram several years ago.

Rename it the Foote bridge, the Councilman did finally find a fix.

True, John Roebling! And I have to say, you did a marvelous job with that Brooklyn Bridge project of yours. It's certainly stood the test of time.

Jackson (except for the parts laid-out by Founding Fathers) is not gridded, in the way that is Greenville (a culture and town as much an extension of the methodical Midwest, as it is Southern). Long-term planning seems to have been a concept which has eluded the Carpetbagger/Gold Coast dynasties who replaced the Founding Stock. Since Reconstruction, Jackson "planning" seems to have been more about momentary expediency than about Roman-style efficiency and planning for posterity.

Hence, there are huge gaps, all over the metro, in terms of thoroughfares linking the main traffic arteries. Going between Frontage Road and Old Canton Road, there were no options, for miles, besides Colonial Circle. Rankin and Madison Counties, at least, are attempting to introduce a Greenville-style gridding of the countryside surrounding the city. For Jackson, it's too late.

I misunderstood the headline.
Had hoped it was someone decent replacing ashby foote.

Thanks to those telling why the road would be used by big trucks.

@11:43, that was a Jitney Jungle. It was actually the first Jitney Jungle Supercenter. My first job as a teenager was there.

I wonder if the new former public works director will stay on the job long enough to attend the bridge opening ceremony.