The Oct. 5 completion date for the old Levee Street Depot renovation will be extended about 18 days to install a sidewalk from the depot to the MV Mississippi IV and the Lower Mississippi River Museum and Riverfront Interpretive Center site, the city’s project director for the renovation project said.

“This is an amendment to the project that was not in the original contract, and the board (of Mayor and Aldermen) have to approve it,” city building and inspections director and project director Victor Gray-Lewis said. “MDOT (the Mississippi Department of Transportation and Development) is looking at it now.”

The estimated $1,000 amendment also includes installing new ceilings in two rooms and reducing the number of display tracks from five to four for static train cars displays, he said. He said the sidewalk will be on the west side of Levee Street to allow visitors walking between the depot and the center to look at the murals painted along the floodwall.

The project is one of three amendments awaiting the board’s approval. Other amendments include construction of Vicksburg Main Street’s offices on the depot’s third floor, and a $33,000 amendment to repair flood damage that was not covered by project contractor Kenneth R. Thomspon Jr.’s insurance. Gray-Lewis said the board could discuss the $33,000 amendment on Friday.

The Main Street Board of Directors discussed plans for Main Street’s offices at a Tuesday meeting. Plans call for two offices and a workroom on the southern end of the depot, and a conference room that will be shared with the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors.

VCVB’s offices will share the second floor with the museum.

Gray-Lewis said the VCVB’s offices are near completion. He said no work had begun on the third floor, because offices were not considered in the original renovation plans.

“We’ve got a mock floor plan from Main Street for the third floor,” he said. “We need to get an estimate on the cost, and the contractor is looking at it.”

Vicksburg Mayor Paul Winfield said the Board of Mayor and Aldermen could discuss the Main Street offices in the next few weeks. He said the city has money for the work.

Initial plans for the depot had Main Street and the VCVB sharing office space on the second floor with the museum.

The VCVB board in August had second thoughts about moving into the depot because of concerns about space. The board at a special Sept. 9 meeting, however, approved moving into the 104-year-old building after renovations are completed.

Work on depot restoration began in 2010 and was halted when the Mississippi River dumped 4 feet of water into the building as the river reached record heights in Vicksburg, cresting at 57.1 feet on May 19, 14.1 feet above flood stage and 1.3 foot above the Great Flood of 1927.

The high water halted work on the depot, which became a national symbol of the flooding in Vicksburg. Work resumed in June.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Aug. 31 approved a supplemental agreement with Kenneth R. Thompson Jr. Builder, estimated at $23,000 to repair damage to the depot from the 2011 flood that was not covered under the original agreement.

Gray-Lewis said the city will submit the bills from both contract amendments for flood damage repairs to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for reimbursement.