Despite a last-minute plea from Mayor Paul Winfield to keep a gravel road owned by DiamondJacks Casino open as a detour around a long-closed Washington Street bridge, the casino officially closed its gate this morning.

In an e-mail sent to DiamondJacks Casino General Manager Felicia Gavin on Monday evening, Winfield said the closure could hurt the city’s efforts to secure an additional $3.8 million needed to replace a railroad overpass with a tunnel.

“One of our selling points has been to highlight the undue burden the bridge (closing) places upon your facilities. Therefore, we strongly encourage DiamondJacks to reconsider their proposed action as it might have a negative effect upon getting the project under way,” the mayor’s letter read. 

Gavin said this morning she has responded to Winfield’s e-mail and notified him the closure would continue as planned. However, Gavin said she is open to discussing the issue further with the mayor.

“We don’t want to do anything that would halt progress on the bridge replacement. We need the bridge open,” Gavin said. “At this point we’re going ahead with the closure because it’s all about the safety of our employees and our guests. We’re not trying to be difficult about this situation, but this is private property and our employees and guests come first.”

Gavin cited safety when the closure was announced last week. She said the increased volume of traffic has created many near accidents and is undermining the foundation of the access road and deteriorating the casino’s parking lot.

The Washington Street bridge at Clark Street has been closed since January. The posted detour takes motorists around City Park east via Lee Street and Army Navy Drive. However, many motorists discovered a shorter route by taking Lee Street west to the railroad tracks — which are not protected by gates — and crossing over to the gravel access road connected to the DiamondJacks parking lot.

The city has been scrambling to find the extra funds necessary to get the bridge replacement project under way since before Winfield took office in July. The 80-year-old bridge is to be replaced with a road-topped railway tunnel. The project is being overseen by Kansas City Southern Railway, and everything is in place for construction to begin — except the funds.

When the city began planning for the bridge replacement in 2006, it estimated the cost at $5 million and set aside exactly that much of a $16.9 million bond issue for the work. The Federal Railroad Administration is to reimburse the city $4 million of the cost. However, when bids were taken on the work earlier this year the cost had grown to nearly twice the original estimate.

After months of negotiations, KCS has awarded Kanza Construction of Topeka, Kan., the bid at $8.6 million, but construction will not begin until the funds are in place.

Winfield said in the e-mail he remains optimistic Congress will appropriate the $3.8 million for the project once the session begins in January. Once funded, he said construction should take about 18 months. In late September, Winfield was joined by representatives from the Warren County Board of Supervisors and the Mississippi Department of Transportation in showing an aid of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran the negative impacts the bridge closure has had on traffic, safety and business.

Vicksburg’s casino ordinance requires all developments to have at least two access points for use during emergencies. However, the secondary access point for DiamondJacks was fenced with the gate closed much of the time.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com