The Brookhaven Board of Aldermen recently approved a proposal to repair a crumbling storm drain that is causing damage to the street above it.

Public Works Director Keith Lewis informed the board that a brick storm drain at the intersection of S. Church Street and W. Chickasaw Street has begun to crumble, causing problems on the road.

“Right down there in front of the school (Brookhaven Elementary School), across from the Jewish museum — we have a concrete brick storm drain over there that we’ve had issues with for several years. I had Mike McKenzie (WGK engineer) come look at it, and he suggested that instead of digging all that up and putting pipe storm drains back, to seal everything up from the inside, just like we did right down the street about 100 yards,” he said.

Lewis said to seal the brick storm drain to keep it from crumbling and damaging the roads above, a contractor would get in the drainage system and spray it with a liner. The liner would seal all of the bricks, keeping them intact, he said.

“Mike said WGK has repaired the storm drains all throughout Natchez and it’s doing good,” Lewis said.

The city previously repaired part of the storm drain on W. Chickasaw Street, Lewis said. This new project would allow the city to fix the storm drain in front of Brookhaven Elementary School.

“We’re wanting to finish that whole section out,” Lewis said. “That way all of the storm drains that have been repaired are connected. For this project, we are talking about right at 180 feet. Really, all I’m asking for tonight is that you give me blessings to go forward with this and get a true number on it.”

Aldermen Ward 6 David Phillips moved to proceed with getting estimates on the cost of repairing the storm drain.

“You’ve been having trouble over there for at least two or three years,” Phillips said. “This will be the third time we’ve been in here to talk about it.”

Lewis said he hopes to get the storm drain repaired before the city begins to pave those two streets in order to keep the newly repaired roads from crumbling because of the storm drains under them.

The city originally built the storm drain system in 1926, and it has seen very few repairs since that time.