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Fortification Street Project Bid Approved

During last night’s City Council meeting a bid was approved from Hemphill Construction in the amount of $8,988,961 to construct the Fortification Street Project. The contract will now go to MDOT for concurrence, and once that occurs, the project is expected to begin in late May.

This project will reconstruct 1.2 miles of Fortification Street from Short Farish Street to Greymont Avenue. Major components of the project include:

• Replacement of the water and sewer mains on Fortification Street plus a 24″ water main on Jefferson Street between Fortification Street and Manship Street.

• Replacement of all existing sidewalks and construction of new sidewalks where there are gaps in the sidewalks. All sidewalks will be ADA compliant.

• Between Jefferson St and Greymont Ave., the project will convert the four-lane section to three lanes. The change will provide the following benefits:
• A dedicated left turn lane to move left turning motorists out of the through lane of traffic.
• Additional space for ADA compliant sidewalks on both sides of the street.

• Replacement of all six traffic signals with new mast arm signals.

• Installation of traffic monitoring cameras and supporting fiber optic communication wires along the project.

• Installation of decorative lighting fixtures along the length of the project.

• Relocation of overhead utilities to an underground vault east of Jefferson Street.
• Installation of all new signage on the street.

Fortification Street will remain open at all times during the project. Traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction to accommodate construction. Businesses on the work zone side of the street will have a temporary driveway and a sign identifying their business posted.

The construction is expected to last 18 months.

Previous Comments

When will construction start?


According to the release, the project is expected to begin in late May.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.