Jackson will take advantage of detour to fix failing manhole on U.S. 61

The city of Jackson will capitalize on a traffic disruption from the roundabout construction to fix a failing manhole on U.S. 61.

“Since the roundabout already has people trained to not go into that area, it would be a really good time to get [the manhole] fixed,” director of wastewater utilities Kent Peetz said during a recent Jackson Board of Aldermen meeting.

The manhole, at the intersection of East Jefferson Street and South Hope Street, is a brick structure. The city now uses different materials — plastic pipes with concrete — but brick manholes are not uncommon around town.

“We’ve got a lot of brick manholes in the city,” Peetz said. “But this one is different because it’s in Highway 61, with a lot of traffic over the top of it.”

It no longer can be ignored, Peetz said.

“We’ve already extended the top of it by adding a two-inch riser, but it’s sunk into the road base a bit,” he said. “It really needs to be replaced.”

The same traffic that caused the manhole’s failure, Peetz said, would make repairs more dangerous.

“It’s a routine job for us to fix things like this, but because it’s in Highway 61, it becomes a little more challenging of a job to work around,” he said. “We worked on North High Street on 61 last summer. It wasn’t fun, so now we’re trying to take advantage of the decreased traffic.”

The detour will take the existing route and move it a block south, taking motorists west on East Madison Street.

The city is accepting a bid from Monroe Plumbing & Heating of Cape Girardeau for just under $13,300, but that likely will increase somewhat.

“We’re going to need more signage to help people find the uptown businesses,” Peetz said.

The project’s start date is subject to change.

“We don’t think it will be done by the start of school,” Peetz said. “It will be sometime in September. There again, we’re trying to work with local businesses for timing. The feeling from the [board of alderman] was that it would be better to wait until after August.”

Peetz said the project will take only a few days and would cause more of a headache if it were postponed.

“A lot of our utilities are located in the middle of the street; that’s just the way it is,” he said. “But we’re trying to time things to be the least disruptive as possible.”

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627