$1.1 Million Paving Project Underway

By Editor | September 16, 2026 |

WATER VALLEY — A $1.1 million street paving project in Water Valley started Monday on Stephens Street, with portions of 19 streets expected to receive new asphalt across the city. The work comes after the city awarded the bid in July to Falcon Contracting Company.

Depending on the condition of each street, work will include asphalt overlays, milling and overlay and repairs to deteriorated road bases before paving. The project is expected to take three to four weeks to complete, weather permitting.

Stephens Street, where crews began Monday, is one of the larger portions of the project. Plans call for improvements along approximately 2,575 feet, or just under a half-mile, of the street.

The paving project was developed by Willis Engineering using information collected through a LiDAR assessment of Water Valley streets along with field inspections. LiDAR uses lasers to measure road surfaces, giving engineers detailed information about pavement conditions and helping identify problem areas. Engineers used that data along with field evaluations to prioritize streets and determine how the city could get the most work from the money available.

When aldermen approved the project earlier this summer, Willis Engineering project engineer Karl Grubb said the assessment showed considerably more street work was needed than the city could afford to complete in a single project.

“When we came back to the city, we were way over budget because, of course, there’s more need than there’s money,” Grubb said. “But everything that was selected was needed, very needed.”

The final construction plans include work on Young Street, Prospect Drive, Sissell Road, Dupuy Street, Depot Street, Daniels Drive, Chestnut Street, North Haynes Street, Stephens Street, Wood Street, Calhoun Street, Berkshire Road, Griffin Street, Community Park Drive, Mixon Drive, East Court Street, Jones Street, North Main Street and Martin Street. The amount and type of work vary considerably from street to street.

“Some roads were just overlays, some were mill and overlay, and some were base repairs,” Grubb told the Herald.

The construction plans call for approximately 4,100 tons of asphalt for the primary overlay work, in addition to asphalt used for leveling and base repairs. More than 18,000 square yards of existing pavement are scheduled to be milled.

Grubb said repairing failing sections of road base before they deteriorate further is important because the cost increases substantially once a roadway reaches the point that it must be completely rebuilt.

“When you get a road base that’s been failing in areas, you’ve got to rebuild your road,” he said.

The city’s cost breakdown shows some of the largest portions of the project are Wood Street, estimated at $214,548; Jones Street at $138,852; Calhoun Street at $126,575 and Stephens Street at $125,147.

The street work totals approximately $1.038 million, with about $61,758 included for contingencies, bringing the overall project budget to $1.1 million.

The project is being financed through a street improvement bond program, with the debt to be repaid using the city’s share of Mississippi Use Tax Dividends, commonly referred to as internet sales tax revenue, rather than local property taxes.

Water Valley receives about $267,750 annually from the internet sales tax program. Reynolds said about 50 to 60 percent of that money will be used to repay the 10-year bond, with the remainder continuing to support other street improvements.

“This is a strong start toward getting some much-needed street work done across the city,” Reynolds said. “We were fortunate to get this bid locked in when we did. With fuel prices going up, that drives up the cost of asphalt, too, so I think the timing worked in our favor.”