JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
City council leaders are applauding the largest infrastructure project in Jackson's history. The capitol city negotiated a massive $90 million dollar deal with Siemens to upgrade Jackson's crumbling water and sewer infrastructure.
A water line break on South Jefferson Street is just a small part of a widespread and constant problems plaguing the city.
First up, new lines to reduce these problems. Then installation of more efficient water meters.The aging meter system reads low levels of water usage.
The Mayor acknowledged Thursday, you could see a hike in your bills.
"And one good thing about this utility billing system is they are going to be able to monitor that usage and to conserve," said Mayor Johnson. "So obviously some water meters are 40-50 years old. They probably are not reading accurately."
Mayor Johnson says bills could possibly go up for residential and commercial customers, but he adds that some could go down.
In all, the project is expected to pay for itself in long term savings.
"The whole project is supposed to pay for itself," added the mayor. "In fact this whole notion is revenue neutral. The cost of all the improvements will be covered by the savings or increased revenues that will be produced from making these improvements."
Other plans include updating broken equipment at the city's two water plants. And installing a new water/sewer billing system.
The Mississippi Development Authority must sign off on the work
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