Hattiesburg City Council announces infrastructure milestone in Ward 2

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Mayor Toby Barker and Councilwoman Deborah Delgado announced Thursday the operations of a milestone infrastructure project across three wards.

"On Duke avenue and Corinne, they’re not only going to get a new sewer line, that’s going to set them up for success for long term but also they’re going to get their street paved after its done. So that’s welcomed news to this neighborhood. In the case of Dogwood drive this is a part of the city that never had sewer service to begin with so they had to treat theirs on site with a tank. Now, they’ll actually have sewer service to their home, so it represents progress to three streets in three different wards,” said Mayor Toby Barker.

Crews have started the work process on Duke Avenue to replace long problematic concrete tricotta pipe with a new SDR26PDC line. “In order to so that replacement we’ve hired engineers to go out and survey all these areas. They have taken into account the existing utilities within these areas to design the sewer lines," City Engineer Director, Lamar Rutland explained.

The project cost $1,077,240.50 and it will be completed in August 2018. “This...project is coming form a funding source that was originally slated to pay for the waste water treatment facility. However, with our lagoons meeting permit requirements and the recent settlement with the Gulf Restoration Network, this money can now be shifted to projects such as this,” the mayor explained.

Ward 2 Councilwoman, Deborah Delgado continuously voiced her support for project restoration to take place in the Duke, Dogwood and Corinne street neighborhoods. “I want to thank the different departments of the city of Hattiesburg who work so hard to bring this project to fruition. I want to particularly shout out to Director Larry Barnes for all of the years we’ve had conversations and might I say, heated conversations about the condition of this street and what is needed in this community.” said Delgado.

City officials said they appreciate the citizen's patience during the infrastructure development process.