By Staff
WATERVIEW DRIVE – Jamie Horn, of APAC Mississippi Inc., stands on the back of a paver Thursday while Samuel Lewis operates the machine. The crew was working to pave the intersection of Waterview Drive and Watters Road. Photo by Anna Wright/The Meridian Star
By Erin Hilsabeck / staff writer
May 21, 2004
Motorists may have noticed that Meridian's long-awaited road-paving project has begun. Workers from APAC Mississippi Inc. repaved the intersection at Waterview Drive and Watters Road Thursday.
APAC crews started work Monday almost nine months after the city received a $6 million loan to fund the project.
A section of Arundel Road between Highway 11 and 49th Avenue was Monday's job, Ivy said.
Repairs on Tuesday and Wednesday included sections between First and Fifth streets, on 53rd and 56th avenues. Today's work will be at Key Field at Meridian Regional Airport, along M Street from 60th to 62nd streets.
Twenty-five APAC workers are repairing the roads, Ivy said, filling the largest potholes first and then laying down asphalt where needed.
Other road work involves filling potholes, adjusting manhole covers and replacing curbs.
Goldman said the public works department first needed to estimate the cost of the road repairs. Once Monty Jackson, Meridian public works director, gave the go-ahead, Goldman said he began ordering supplies like 50,000 tons of asphalt.
Goldman said the project will take three to five months, although Ivy estimates six to eight months.
Road workers are cleaning streets as they go, and Goldman said he is unsure where and when the next repairs will take place.
Ward 5 Councilman Bobby Smith said he is glad to see the project under way.