Mayor Paul Winfield said Thursday he’s optimistic the nearly $4 million needed to begin replacing the closed Washington Street bridge at Clark Street will be allocated shortly after the first of the year via a federal stimulus grant.

“The $4 million, I am told that is not going to be that much and they think they’re going to be able to get us in,” Winfield told the Rotary Club of Vicksburg as the group’s guest speaker. “That money will likely be approved sometime in January.”

Winfield also said the city is trying to urge the construction company that has a contract for the bridge replacement to begin phase one of the work before the additional funds are secured. Phase one includes creating a bypass around the bridge, which has been closed since January, by adding a roadway next to the entrance to DiamondJacks Casino that will connect with Lee Street.

Under former Mayor Laurence Leyens, the city set aside $5 million of a $16.9 million bond issue for the bridge replacement in 2006. However, by the time the contract was ready to be awarded earlier this year, the bids came in at about twice that amount. Kanza Construction of Topeka, Kan., has been awarded a construction bid not to exceed $8.6 million, but the work is not slated to begin until total funding is in place.

“We don’t know if they’re going to be willing to come down and start the first phase without a guarantee that the other monies are there, but we’re trying to work something out,” Winfield said.

Winfield said discussions with DiamondJacks executives are also taking place to see if the casino will reconsider its closing of a private access road that motorists had been using instead of the posted detour. The casino closed the gate on the access road on Oct. 20 citing employee and customer safety, as well as damage caused to the entrance road and parking lot by the added traffic. Winfield had made an unsuccessful last-minute plea with casino executives to keep the road open.

“We’ve been told there’s $100,000 worth of damage to their road and parking lot,” he said. “We’re trying to come up with a way to eliminate the heavy traffic, the heavy trucks, and still allow our citizens to move through their corridor.”

Winfield discussed a number of other issues during his 40-minute address, including juvenile crime and small business promotion, but he called the Washington Street bridge project the city’s “most pressing issue.”

The city first began scrambling for the additional funds earlier this year with Leyens, who attempted to find the money through Mississippi Department of Transportation and the $787 billion federal stimulus package.

The 80-year-old bridge is to be replaced with a road-topped railway tunnel, and the Federal Railroad Administration is to reimburse the city $4 million of the cost. City officials have estimated the tunnel construction should take anywhere from a year to 18 months once work begins.*

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com