Crews should resume work to replace a bridge on Redbone Road at Paces Bayou sometime this week while a slight break in the afternoon heat has moved along similar work on Fisher Ferry Road expected to last the balance of the year, contractors on each job said.

Work by Laurel-based Magco Inc. to build a new span on Redbone Road, off U.S. 61 South at the city limits, has stalled while the company secures dirt to rebuild earthen approaches on both sides of the new bridge, parts of which are already in place, estimator and field support manager Steven Mitchell said.

“It’s not anything unusual,” he said. “One thing we don’t want to do is open it before it’s safe.”

In March, the firm won a $541,845.62 bid on the job, to be financed with money from the Mississippi Department of Transportation Office of State Aid Road Construction. Since, motorists have been detoured onto Jeff Davis, Fisher Ferry and Grange Hall roads.

Contract specifics called for the project to be done in 90 working days, subject to interruptions for bad weather. About 43 percent of that has elapsed and the project is about 69 percent complete, said Brian Robbins of ABMB Engineers Inc., Warren County’s engineering firm. Neither specified an expected completion date.

The new bridge and support pilings will be about 6 feet wider than the old span, eyed for replacement due to rotting, hollowed-out timber support pilings and other structural issues, Robbins said.

Farther south, state-aided construction of new bridges on Fisher Ferry Road at the Big Black River is back on after delays from flooding and heat.

The contractor, Vicksburg-based Fordice Construction, is about 40 percent through its contract, company president Hunter Fordice said. Funds available for the project won by Fordice in November total $1,599,000.

The site should remain closed to traffic “through 2011,” he said. Detours have directed motorists onto Mississippi 27 and U.S. 61 South.

The Mississippi River’s historic rise in May backed up the Big Black and halted work for about six weeks, Fordice said. Earlier this month, afternoon temperatures at or above 100 degrees cut work days to six or seven hours, he said.

Temperatures this week are expected to be in the mid-90s, with lows in the 60s.

“We had to wait until it was dry enough to do our clearing and grubbing,” Fordice said.

Funds for Warren County from state aid totaled $1,263,987.22 this fiscal year, up about 13.5 percent from last year. The 1.32 percent of available state funds allocated locally, based on county size and population, remains down about 19 percent from four years ago.