City approves re-work of Bennett Street intersection at Goodyear Blvd

During Tuesday’s Picayune City Council meeting, City Engineer Jonathan Hickman discussed a project with the council for the redesign of the intersection of Goodyear Boulevard and Bennett Street.

The new fire station that is being built at that location would cause motorists to travel through the fire stations parking lot to access Bennett Street without modifications. Hickman said that engineers have designed a way to connect Bennett to the major intersection eliminating the need for civilian traffic to interfere with emergency first responders while also taking care of some existing drainage concerns.

The money for this project, with engineering costs and related work would be approximately $57,000, depending on the bids to be received for the construction part of the project. The construction and paving for the project is estimated to be approximately $49,642.50 according to Hickman. He stated that the city will be accepting bids from contractors very soon.

Hickman (standing at podium in photo) proposed that the construction part of this work be paid from funds in the current city-wide paving project that has $5.7 million available from the bond proceeds.

Councilmen Larry Breland and Wayne Gouguet expressed concern that with the money being used from the $5.7 million, it would require removal of some streets from the list to be paved in the future. Hickman said the list of streets to be paved across the city is still being finalized.

City Clerk Amber Hinton said Bennett Street was already on the city-wide paving list and it was being paved now as part of the timing of the new fire station and the reworking of the intersection.

City Manager Jim Luke told the council that he plans to have drive around reviews with Hickman, Director of Public Works Eric Morris, and each council member in their district to review the list of streets on the current list in order to re-prioritize the list due to the money being used for the project on Bennett Street at Goodyear Blvd.

The council approved the project pending bids from the contractors.

Illustrations presented to the council by Hickman are below.