First of a two-part series about Meridian’s downtown construction project, which is still in progress nine months past its original completion date.

Meridian Mayor Percy Bland shaves his head and that is a good thing, because frustration from seemingly never-ending downtown construction delays would make him want to pull his hair out.

“You know it,” Bland said. “We’re frustrated because we’re ready for it to be completed. We’re working with Mississippi Development and the contractor to resolve issues so we can complete the project and move on to other projects.”

The city embarked on a planned nine-month Drainage and Utility Improvement Project on Jan. 21, 2015, with a projected completion date of Dec. 5, 2015. Problems such as weather delays, buried obstacles and poor underground mapping, however, caused incessant delays through the holiday and back-to-school shopping seasons, downtown events and concert seasons.

The project’s latest deadline is Aug. 31 and the city is sticking with the date, but with construction equipment on top of gravel streets, it’s evident that deadline won’t be met in just a few days.

“Until someone above me sets a new date, we’re pushing as hard as we can for Aug. 31,” City Project Manager Randall Gaither said.

The frustration is seen in the faces of drivers trying to navigate their way to work or to the MSU Riley Center for a concert and by pedestrians as they gingerly walk on broken pavement, around barricades, in a cloud of dust, to visit a downtown shop, restaurant or bank. Roads have been closed or have become one-way and traffic patterns have changed to accommodate construction.

“The last we were told the major part of the downtown project was supposed to be finished the last of this month,” Ward 1 Councilman Dr. George Thomas said. “The problem now is if we run into winter we’ll have weather delays. I have received no reasonable explanation as to why it’s not completed.

“A month or so ago you could drive around construction areas but there were no workers there,” Thomas said. “Another explanation I’ve heard was spring was too wet. The contractor said it was too wet. Forecasters I’ve heard all said it was one of the dryest springs, down 3-4 inches below normal. We get a lot of excuses but don’t get any reasons why it’s not finished.”

Agreement on need

The purpose of the project, guided by contractor Socrates Garrett Enterprises, is to rid downtown Meridian of insufficient drainage problems that have resulted for years in flooding problems. The need was real.

“For decades, the area from First State Bank down to the Riley Center and back to the old police station has suffered flooding problems in heavy rainfall events,” Gaither said. “In 2011, we were made aware of funds being made available that HUD had set aside due to Katrina. The connection between the flooding and Katrina was acceptable and we got the money, a total of $3.2 million.”

Gaither said city infrastructure needed to be replaced to fix the problem.

“All the concrete and asphalt down there has not been replaced in many decades,” Gaither said. “The concrete and asphalt was not attractive and did not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Correcting those elements was also a driving force in why we began ripping up downtown.”

Gaither said construction crews have been hampered by one problem after another since the project began.

“First, there were the old trolley tracks. As you go beyond that, we found city water and sewer lines, which were to be replaced for this project, were inaccurately mapped,” Gaither said. “Our own mapping was inaccurate and became another obstacle.

“All of the traffic signals and controllers are linked together with metal conduits and are buried under a concrete cap and very shallow,” Gaither added. “Every time we dug and hit one, it served as a place we couldn’t get the road down any farther. The goal is to go down far enough so water won’t spill over into the buildings. We were hampered in that endeavor.”

Gaither said the small spaces crews were working in were crowded with various utility lines.

“Other people’s utilities, like AT&T, Mississippi Power and Atmos Energy, are all in that space in which we’re working,” Gaither said. “We found AT&T and Mississippi Power conduits are much larger and in some cases, 2-3 feet wider and 2-3 feet in depth. These big pieces of concrete become an obstruction and slows us up. Because of all those things combined, plans had to be adjusted and redesigned multiple times. It’s like we go 20 feet, stop and think about it and redesign it before we can go on. That has been the process almost from day one. At least for the last 12 months that process has been going on, on a weekly basis. Almost every week we run into something.”

Mapping problems

Gaither said each mapping system had faults.

“These plans were generated in the 2012 engineering survey. What the survey did not give us is what’s underneath sidewalks and asphalt paving,” Gaither said. “We looked at old records from the utility companies. Some maps were dated from the 1940s and 1950s. None of them were very precise. They were asked to provide as much information as possible, but the information they provided turned out to be quite incomplete.

“AT&T, Mississippi Power and Atmos Energy’s mapping are not much better than ours,” Gaither said. “Many of these conduits were installed in the late 1950s and 1960s and nobody knew what they looked like until we dug them up.”

The lines were nearly impossible to find, according to Gaither.

“In the plans a line looks like the width of a pencil,” he said. “We find out it’s 2-3 feet wide and 3-5 feet deep in a concrete encasement conduit. Running into one of those is a challenge. It’s a gravity system that doesn’t have vertical play. Each time, we’ve had to redesign.”

Gaither insisted the city has a plan.

“There is a plan. Because of all the obstructions we’ve modified the plan in some fashion almost every week,” Gaither said. “Limits of the work did not change. In terms of the plans, we stuck with that part, but have had to make alterations in regard to obstructions as we went along.”

The congestion under the ground has created congestion above it, too, and the city has tried to coordinate traffic flow with downtown events.

“We meet regularly with business owners adjacent to work areas and to the degree we can schedule work activity so that they minimize interferences between construction and community events,” Gaither said. “Say the Riley Center needs extra parking, we try and work around it. We’re trying to mitigate some inconveniences .”

Then there are unanticipated traffic concerns. Construction has played havoc with local emergency vehicles such as ambulances.

“We’re having to take alternate routes to get to calls,” Metro Ambulance Service Dispatch Manager Davida Hopkins said. “It is frustrating. We have a listing in our dispatch center that tells where construction is going on. We tell our drivers to take 28th Avenue instead of 22nd Avenue.”

Changing plans

Delays and cost overruns have also meant the elimination of planned features, such as decorative crosswalks.

“Several crosswalks have been removed from the project,” Gaither said. “Because of the thickness of the asphalt, pavement has been reduced slightly to make it lower relative to the buildings. The plan on 22nd Avenue is to put 6 inches of new asphalt and drop that down to 4 inches because of the conduits. There was no money to relocate those conduits. We are not experiencing any significant cost overruns. We really won’t know until we close out the deal.”

Gaither said 22nd Avenue has been de-asphaulted from Fifth Street to Eighth Street.

“That is the last piece of the puzzle. We’ve got some storm drainage pipes to lay under the brick,” Gaither said. “In two places we’ve got to reconnect water lines on 22nd Avenue near Eighth Street near Harvest Grill and First State Bank and Fifth Street near the Riley Center and Regions Bank. We’ve got to put new asphalt down for paving. After paving, the decorative crosswalks follow, followed by striping and signage.”

Gaither said the project has been one long, extended headache.

“We anticipated being through Dec. 5, 2015. That is my nine month frustration benchmark,” Gaither said. “Every day after that contributes to the frustration.”

More than one merchant would agree.

AO-Tech Computers owner Robb Hudson starred blankly out a front window of his business as crews worked in front of his building at 600 22nd Avenue, making it difficult to reach his front doors.

“Construction has affected my walk-in traffic,” Hudson said. “People are informing me it’s hard to get to, so we’re doing pick-up and delivery of custom computers so they don’t have to fight the traffic. We’ve been told by several people they’re going to wait until construction is done before they come back.”

Hudson has been at the location for over two years. He has no plans to leave.

“Optimistically, it will be nice once it’s done, but it’s just getting to that point,” Hudson said. “We’re not going anywhere. This is a great location and we love our neighbors. We love being downtown.”

TUESDAY: Construction has been bad for downtown business, but some say the improvements are worth the price.