The City of Jackson will face a water shut off on Friday, March 10 beginning around 3:00 p.m. until approximately 3 p.m. Sunday, March 12.
City officials are recommending all of Jackson stock up on water for the scheduled outage.
Half to two thirds of the city are expected to lose water for the duration of the repairs. This includes anyone South of I-55 inside the Highway 80 corridor. City officials are most concerned with the southwestern and western portions of Jackson.
“Basically if you experience any issues on February 10, when we conducted the last outage, we expect you will see issues this time as well,” said Director of Public Works Jerriot Smash.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency estimates that 40,000 customers will lose water. For the remainder of the city water pressure is expected to be lost, and boil water alerts will be issued once pressure is restored.
Smash continued to encourage customers to sign up for Code Red for updates and alerts.
Emergency Manager, Deputy Chief Brandon Falcon, said that they have set up three water distribution points at Precinct 1, Cooper Road, Precinct 2, MetroCenter, and another on the campus of Jackson State University on the West Street side of the stadium.
“We have reached out to our mutual aid agreements, we are business as usual,” said Falcon. He also recommended the 311 system and Code Red system to stay informed.
A plan has been set in place to ensure that water is distributed to the elderly or disabled who are not able to pick it up. For assistance call 601-960-0335.
Hours for water pickup on Friday will be 12:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. and on Saturday they will start at 8:00 a.m. until water runs out.
The three breaks on the water line are in a span of three miles, all parallel to I-20. The Forrest Avenue break in the most recognizable, and Smash said the other two are on the north and south side of it.
“These breaks will naturally contribute to the perceived water loss that we have,” said Smash. “It is certainly not helping our cause to have these leaks go unchecked.
It is estimated that the city has been loosing close to 40 percent of it’s water since 2011. No cost value has been placed on it at this point.
The city is advising that businesses stock pile enough water to continue working until water pressure gets so low that it is unsafe to use the water. At that point boil water notices will be issued.
The two contractors on the project are Hemphill Construction and Utility Constructors Inc. At this point the cost of the emergency contract has not been disclosed. Smash said those numbers should be available after the repairs are finished.
Smash said the chances that the repair will take longer than 48 hours is very low. The combined resources of two contractors should prevent it from taking any longer.
“We do have a couple of situations where elevation is an issue and if we are taking pressure off of certain lines it can cause an issue,” said Smash. “What we would expect to happen is the eastern side of the city still in pretty good shape, and we do have the well system.”
For how this could effect businesses click HERE.
For more background on the water shut off check HERE.
