(The following story by Laura Hipp appeared on the Clarion-Ledger website on December 27.)
A multimillion dollar facelift for the railroad tracks downtown promises to beautify the western edge of the district.
Construction will begin in the spring on the Mill Street viaduct from Amite to Pascagoula streets. Plans include a market, clock tower, a brick facade for the bridge and wider sidewalks.
The cost has been estimated at $7 million. The city recently requested construction bids, and work could last about 18 months.
The bridge is now covered by a hodgepodge of colorful murals. Spaces underneath the tracks have been home to vagrants over the years.
“Certainly, it forms a barrier between two sides of town,” said Jackson architect Bob Canizaro, who is designing the project. “(The project’s) going to create an attractive edge of town.”
Three artists have been chosen to create pieces for the project, Canizaro said.
Ed Mc Gowin, a Hattiesburg native who lives in New York, will create railroad-themed decorative hand rails that will separate pedestrians from traffic underneath the bridge.
Martha Farris of Vicks burg will design 1-by-3-foot metal pieces on brick pillars that separate traffic lanes.
John Medwedeff of Murphysboro, Ill., will create a 10-foot-tall metal sculpture on east side of the viaduct between Pearl and Pascagoula streets.
A 35-foot clock tower in a small plaza will sit in the intersection of Capitol and Mill streets. And a market will be inside a now-vacant building underneath the bridge at Capitol Street, south of the Union Station Depot transportation hub.
“When we dress this thing up, it’s going to look very attractive and like a dynamic area,” said attorney David Watkins, whose office is in Union Station.
Watkins is redeveloping the King Edward Hotel with Historic Restoration Inc. of New Orleans and New Orleans Saints’ Deuce McAllister. The landmark towers over the viaduct.
The market and artwork will help attract shops and offices to the hotel, Watkins said. Construction on the King Edward could begin in mid-2005.
The Jackson City Council approved a license agreement Tuesday that allows construction workers onto the right-of-way of the CN — formerly Canadian National — railroad.
“We’re modernizing all of the viaduct between Amite and Pascagoula,” Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. said. “This is a milestone here just to get this behind us.”