BPD urges patience, caution
Published 8:54 am Tuesday, October 25, 2016
- Forms are nearing completion that will border Eureka Street’s realignment at its entrance to the Square. The street’s route will move away from the Eureka building, toward the Polk buildings. Construction has rerouted traffic through several streets as motorists seek alternate routes through the Square and across the railroad tracks. BPD is urging motorists to exercise caution and residents of affected streets to be patient. —The Panolian Photo by John Howell
Forms are nearing completion that will border Eureka Street’s realignment at its entrance to the Square. The street’s route will move away from the Eureka building, toward the Polk buildings. Construction has rerouted traffic through several streets as motorists seek alternate routes through the Square and across the railroad tracks. BPD is urging motorists to exercise caution and residents of affected streets to be patient.
—The Panolian Photo by John Howell
BPD urges patience, caution
By John Howell
Batesville Deputy Police Chief Jimmy McCloud said he is asking for patience and caution as drivers denied access to lower Eureka Street navigate detours along side streets.
“We’re getting a lot of complaints,” McCloud said, from residents of Lomax, Johnson, Church, Potts and Court Street, among others.
Lower Eureka Street, normally the neck of a traffic funnel used by drivers to access opposite sides of the railroad, has been closed due to construction to realign Eureka Street’s entrance to the Public Square.
“The traffic’s got to go somewhere,” McCloud said. “Everybody wants the Square to look good, but nobody wants the inconvenience while it’s happening.”
Police will increase their presence along the alternate routes during the construction, according to the BPD official.
On Monday, Brocato Construction Company‘s Jim Fowler, who is supervising the construction of concrete curbs along the new Eureka Street alignment, said the curbs would be complete within a week. Once curbs are poured and finished, Lehman-Roberts Paving Contractor is expected to resume its repaving projects — one project to resurface Eureka Street from the old theater building to the Highway 6 intersection under a contract with the Mississippi Department of Transportation. The second project through the City of Batesville’s summer street resurfacing contract will extend from the end of the MDOT contract to the railroad tracks along Eureka Street’s new alignment.
Also on Monday, city workers were preparing to bore underground routes that will allow 220 volt electrical service on the Square’s east side in front of the Polk Building where food trucks will be allowed during the Polar Express Train Ride schedule that begins November 18.
