NATCHEZ — Residents on 41 Natchez streets may soon notice a smoother ride on their way home.

The City of Natchez has identified nine streets that will be overlaid with asphalt and 32 streets that will be micro-surfaced.

For a full list and map of streets click here

The city has committed $500,000, half of Magnolia Bluffs Casino’s annual lease payment, to the two street repair projects.

Approximately $300,000 will be used to overlay portions of Passbach Street, Peachtree Street, Laurel Avenue, Camellia Drive, John Glenn Avenue, Orange Avenue and three sections of Park Place.

Among the streets to be micro-surfaced are Cherokee Street, Dale Court, Ray Street, Vaughn Drive, Live Oak Drive, Shadow Lane, Fisk Avenue, Myrtle Avenue, Amberwood Court and Felix Street.

City Engineer David Gardner said micro-surfacing costs approximately $25,000 per mile and asphalting a little less than $113,000.

Overlay work will likely start, Gardner said, in the next five or six weeks. The timeframe will be locked down, Gardner said, once the city workers meet with the contractor, W.E. Blain & Sons. Blain won the city’s annual contract bid process, and the work will be done under that contract.

Some preliminary work will have to be done on the streets before they can be overlaid, Gardner said, such as raising the manholes to the new elevation of the street.

“As far as the (overlay) work goes, they can probably get those nine streets done in less than a month,” he said.

Gardner said he would likely ask the Natchez Board of Aldermen for permission to advertise for a contractor for the micro-sealing work at the board’s next meeting on Aug. 13.

Mayor Butch Brown said the city plans to dedicate at least $500,000 to the street program next year and hopes to make it an annual program.

Brown said he would like to spend $1 million on the street program next year, if the city can come up with the money.

The $1 million street program would be done in two parts, Brown said, once in the spring and once in the fall. Brown said he would also like the program to focus more on asphalting rather than micro-surfacing.

Gardner said residents would notice a big difference in the appearance of the city if the city funds the street program every year.