The Mississippi Development Authority has approved a loan for the city to build a road connecting North Frontage Road and Wisconsin Avenue.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday authorized Mayor George Flaggs Jr. to sign an agreement on the 20-year, $1.31 million loan, setting the payment at $7,281.48 a month, according to the loan documents.

Flaggs said he did not know when the project would go out for bid.

The road will go from North Frontage Road east to Wisconsin Avenue across part of the old Battlefield Mall property, which is now owned by JEBCO LLC, the parent company for Blackburn Motors.

The 22-acre JEBCO property encompasses the area that included the former mall. About three acres of the property along North Frontage Road west of River Hills Bank was bought in October by Bossier City, La.-based 3 Rednecks LLC, the lead ownership interest in Excel Honda, to relocate the dealership.

The connecting road will run between the bank and the Honda property.

A decision by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission in November approved rezoning the 22-acre tract along North Frontage owned by JEBCO LLC from C-4 commercial to planned use development, opening the way for the road. A planned use development, or PUD, designation allows light industrial operations, clearing the way for the city to apply for the MDA loan.

Plans for the road are in anticipation of a possible move by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center of the front of its facility from Halls Ferry Road to Wisconsin to reduce traffic on Halls Ferry Road. The new road would also open new property for development.