Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NATCHEZ — Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson asked for the community’s patience tonight as the city addresses challenges related to the Canal and Homochitto street paving projects.

“We (Gibson and Justin Dollar, the city’s public works director) spent two hours this morning with contractors for the Homochitto Street and Canal Street paving project,” he said.

Gibson said he and Dollar went over with the contractors — Theobald Construction, the general contractor for the project, and Central Asphalt, the paving contractor — an 11-page document prepared by Volkert Engineering that pointed out a number of issues and made recommendations that needed to be addressed before the project is deemed completed and in good shape.

“We are going to get this project done and done correctly, and we will get it completed soon,” he said.

Gibson and Dollar walked “a good length of the project” on Canal and Homochitto streets with the contractors Tuesday morning to ensure they understood each issue with the project as it stands now.

“The main challenge is a major batch of asphalt that was applied to Homochitto Street, which proved to be inferior. It was lacking a major ingredient, the binder that holds the asphalt together and allows it to adhere to the surface of the road,” Gibson said.

He said APAC of Mississippi provided the asphalt and has owned up to the error.

At Christmas, right after this problem with the asphalt was discovered, cold weather moved in, and the APAC plant “has been closed just about every day since. We can’t finish the project if we can’t get asphalt.”

In addition to the work needed to complete Homochitto Street, several areas on Canal Street have proven to be deficient.

“There is some rippling in the roadway and some areas that are not up to MDOT’s standards or the city’s standards. Engineers noted several areas on Canal Street where, even though the asphalt was mixed correctly, it will need to be milled, taken up, remilled and reapplied. The contractors have agreed to make it right,” Gibson said. “The city is also withholding more than a half million dollars in funds from that project that will not be paid until this project is done correctly.”

Gibson said good weather is forecast for next week, and he hoped and still holds out hope, that APAC would be able to open its plant and produce asphalt next week.

“We just got this news about five minutes ago that APAC has a corporate-wide meeting next week and APAC Natchez is required to attend, so the APAC plant will be closed next week, too,” he said.

The logistics of getting asphalt from some other plant do not work because of distance. “We will be talking to officials at APAC again tomorrow,” in an effort to get the asphalt as soon as possible,” Gibson said.

Ward 2 Alderman Billie Joe Frazier thanked Gibson for addressing the issue publicly. He said he has gotten numerous questions and comments from his constituents about the project.

“Some citizens think we are just going to let stuff slide. We are addressing this. Please be patient. We are going to straighten Canal Street and Homochitto streets out,” Frazier said.

In better news, Gibson said Stantec Engineering has completed the repairs to the Canal Street Bridge.

In 2024, a state bridge inspection showed some areas of concern in the bridge structure, and MDOT  placed a 5-ton weight limit on vehicles that can cross the bridge.

Stantec Engineering offered a plan that would extend the bridge’s useful life by several years, deferring the need to replace the bridge by almost a decade.

“The final inspection was performed on Jan. 7, and we are hopeful that we have the results by Friday. We hope for good news on the weight rating, which is only 5 tons now. We won’t say anything more about that until we actually get the results of the inspection and the weight analysis,” Gibson said. “We are very grateful to Dozer Construction, who did a fantastic job on the repair of the bridge. Most of the repair was done underneath the bridge. Lots of money was spent where you can’t see it.”