Construction Contract Approved for Development in Downtown Jackson
October 17, 2012 Jackson TN: -- Development for downtown was on the agenda for the Jackson City Council
The council held a special called meeting at 9:00 AM this day to discuss the 3 phases of the
downtown development known as Jackson Walk and L.I.F.T. Center.
The only item on the agenda for consideration and action was for funding of and a contract to complete signal and lane improvements to Highland Ave. in conjunction with the Jackson Walk Development.
According to the budget amendments proposed today, Phase I of the project is estimated to cost between $900,000.00 and $1.1 million.
The funding is estimated to be divided up to $600,000 West Tennessee Healthcare, up to $250,000 City of Jackson, $150,000 fiber-optic construction JEA and $100,000 curb and drainage Hal Crocker.
The $250,000 City contribution is money diverted from the city road paving budget. It is not new money, the money is already in the city budget but it does mean there will be fewer dollars available for street paving for this fiscal year.
The contributions of JEA and Hal Crocker are in-kind contributions not dollars.The council heard Barry Alexander, Eng., Neel and Schaffer, Keith Donaldson, City of Jackson explain the engineering aspects, traffic needs, pedestrian and safety issues related to this project.
Phase I includes:
- Signalization of the intersections at Highland and College and Highland and North Liberty,
- Closure of College street to vehicle traffic between Highland and Shannon,
- Widening of Highland at College St. Southbound, widening of Lafayette at Highland, west of Highland to provide left turn lanes,
- Fiber-optic work to accommodate traffic signals.
The LIFT Center and Jackson Walk Development are joint projects of Crocker/Turley, West Tennessee Healthcare, The City of Jackson, and JEA – Hal Crocker is the master developer along with Crocker/Turley, Healthy Communities, LLC.
The council voted unanimously to approve the funding and the contract for construction.
Development has already begun.