Featured Project
Lake Harbour Drive Extension
Transportation
Ridgeland, Mississippi
Waggoner Engineering provided the full range of consultant services to the City of Ridgeland for the Lake Harbor Drive Extension project that serves as a critical east-west corridor connecting the thriving Highland Colony Parkway to Lake Harbour Drive that extends across the Ross Barnett Reservoir into Rankin County.
Since completion, the Lake Harbour Drive Extension has positively impacted the entire Jackson metropolitan area by reducing traffic in congested areas and creating a much-needed corridor across two major national corridors, Interstate 55 (I-55) and CN Railway (CNR). The extension provides a shorter, safer route with lower speeds and better accessibility to locations previously served by narrow, two-lane roads.
To complete this critical transportation link, Waggoner helped solve the project’s many technical challenges regarding route location. In addition to the design, Waggoner was responsible for topographic surveying and mapping, road, bridge, drainage, rail, and roadway signalization, landscaping, lighting, and pedestrian elements, as well as property surveys and production of right-of-way acquisition maps.
The box culvert under CNR proved a significant challenge to design and construct a major drainage way underneath an active railroad. Waggoner successfully designed the box culvert to accommodate the railroad requirements and assisted the city and the Contractor to construct the $5 million structure, limiting the rail service interruption to less than 24 hours.
Waggoner worked closely with stakeholders to ensure the project’s goals best served the community, including the Mississippi Department of Transportation, CNR, US Army Corps of Engineers, residents of the City of Ridgeland, and other parties at the city and county levels of government.
The design concept further calls for sidewalks, pedestrian walking trails, and biking trails along with access limitations to ensure public safety and enhance service levels. Waggoner completed the route evaluation and NEPA documentation services. The FHWA approved a FONSI for this approximately 18-mile project.
Project Details
Lake Harbour Drive Extension, from US 51 to Highland Colony Parkway, is a four-lane divided roadway with sidewalks, bridges, box culverts, multiple traffic signals, and bike lanes. The project consisted of route location along with environmental assessment services, design phase services, right-of-way services, and construction phase services. Design phase services included topographic surveying and mapping, road, bridge, drainage, rail and roadway signalization, landscaping, lighting, pedestrian elements, property surveys, and production of right-of-way acquisition maps.