Brick crosswalks will return to the city’s revitalized downtown after paving crews finish the $6 million project to resurface downtown thoroughfares, said public works director James “Bubba” Rainer.

The paving, which began in February, is set for completion in the next couple of weeks. Currently, APAC Mississippi, the company hired to do the work, is completing paving along Cherry Street, one of the last downtown streets to receive a new surface. Already, parts of Monroe, Mulberry, South, Levee and Clay streets have been repaved. And, work has begun to repave all of Veto Street. As work has persisted, traffic has been detoured through other downtown streets sections at a time.

Rainer said, once repaving is completed, the city will have APAC come back in about a month later to install the crosswalks, first added to downtown streets as part of an $18.2 million downtown makeover begun in 2002.

“The crosswalks have only been there the last five years,” he said. “They’re relatively new.”

A second bond issue for Mayor Laurence Leyens’ administration is $16.9 million in funds the city received in September to upgrade the Oak Street corridor, replace the Washington Street bridge near Clark Street and repave city streets.

Which streets needed improvements was determined by a computer system that rates conditions. The $180,000 system, designed by ERES Consultants, tracks paving deterioration on catalogued city streets.

The crosswalks were part of the planned resurfacing project, Rainer said. They decorate most of the major intersections throughout downtown, mirroring the brick-paved section of Washington Street.

Several methods have been used in the past to create an impression of brick, Rainer said, but this time workers will try something new. The brick look will be created by stamping the asphalt and coloring it to simulate bricks. The work will begin as a trial run before continuing the process on all of the crosswalks.

“We’ll try three of those and see if it works,” Rainer said.

The “brick” crosswalks in place before the repaving began were made by stamping concrete, he added.