City officials said Friday they’re now eyeing early May as a possible ground-breaking date on the long-stalled bridge replacement at Washington and Clark streets.

After shuffling around already-obligated bond funds to get the necessary $8.6 million in place in late March, city officials had hoped to quickly ink a contract with Kanzaa Construction and have the work under way by early April. The Topeka, Kan., company had verbally agreed to a not-to-exceed $8.6 million bid last summer, and in February gave city officials until the end of March to get the funding and a contract in place.

City Attorney Lee Davis Thames Jr. said the city has submitted a final contract proposal to Kanzaa officials and is waiting to hear back.

“It looks like they’re looking at an April 26 timeline right now,” Thames said. “The ball is in their court right now, and I’m hoping to hear back from them next week.”

If a contract is in place by the last week of April, Thames said Kanzaa crews would likely be on the ground in the first week of May.

The 80-year-old bridge is the lone span along the city’s main north-south thoroughfare connecting Interstate 20 and downtown. It was closed to heavy truck traffic in 2006 due to its instability, and has been shut off to all traffic since Jan. 23, 2009.

The bridge closure has disrupted traffic to businesses near the bridge and along the riverfront, including gas stations, supply stores, barge lines and casinos. Merchants also have said the detour — which takes motorists around City Park via Lee Street, Army Navy Drive and North Frontage Road — has led to decreased tourist traffic.

Getting the bridge replaced with a road-topped railway tunnel has been the city’s top priority since its closure. Officials began planning for its replacement in 2006, and set aside $5 million of a $16.9 million bond for the work. However, by the time bids were taken in early 2009, the project cost had ballooned to nearly twice the original $5 million estimate, setting off months of negotiating with Kanzaa — the lowest of three bidders — and a scramble for the extra cash.

Mayor Paul Winfield last month convinced his fellow aldermen to re-dedicate about $3.7 million — also from the 2006 bond issue — to the bridge. About $2.2 million was to go toward finishing a stalled sports complex on Fisher Ferry Road, while an additional $1.5 million was for a third phase of a citywide paving project.

Those funds will be replenished, said the mayor, if a federal appropriation of $4 million is secured this summer by local delegates in Washington, D.C. City officials formally requested the funds following an annual lobbying trip to D.C. in February, and Winfield has said the city will know by July if the earmark is approved. Once the work is complete, Kansas City Southern is to reimburse the city $4 million of the bridge cost. The mayor has said the entire bridge replacement project, which will be split into two phases, should take about a year to finish.

Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com