A contract to repair the City Hall Annex roof is expected to be awarded Wednesday.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen is expected to accept a bid by DirtWorks Inc. to repair the roof when it meets.

An initial estimate for the project was $500,000, but Mayor Paul Winfield said last week that bids by Dirt Works and Moss Construction Co., both of Vicksburg, were lower. He declined to release those ahead of Wednesday’s vote.

“We have looked at the bids and had some internal meetings on this,” Winfield said. “We’re going to let (city attorney) Lee Thames meet with the contractor to negotiate a final price.”

A third company, JH&H Architects and Planners of Jackson, had been expected to bid on the project.

The annex was closed Aug. 29 after city officials received a structural engineer’s report that the building’s roof presented severe structural problems. The offices of five of the eight city departments in the building have been moved. Board meetings are being held at the Vicksburg Convention Center on Mulberry Street.

The board on Sept. 12 declared an emergency at the annex, allowing it to hire a contractor for the roof without having to go through the bid process.

The city bought the annex, known then as the Neill Building, in 1995 for $250,000. The building is composed of three buildings joined by adding walls. It has three roof styles — pitched, slope and flat — and has been patched on several occasions, city officials said.

According to a summary of the engineer’s report, the trusses and beams supporting the roof’s rafters are in poor shape. The trusses, according to the report, were not adequately anchored to the walls or columns that support them and have deteriorated from water damage.

Concern over employees’ safety forced officials to move offices.

City officials said departments in the annex except TV23 and the Mapping Department have been moved to other locations.

The Vicksburg Senior Center remained at its site, on the southwest corner of the property, because its section of the building was deemed to be in good shape.