A Texas-based engineering company with offices in Jackson will take over the engineering and design for the city’s auxiliary waterline project.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Tuesday approved a $193,589 contract with EJES Inc. of Dallas to review, re-examine and possibly redraw the plans in an attempt to keep the waterline project within its budget.

The company replaces IMS Engineers of Jackson, which had been the waterline project engineer since 2010. Between Feb. 15, 2011, and Aug. 29, 2014, the city paid IMS $212,331.50, according to city Accounting Department records.

The board in November cancelled its contract with IMS after bids exceeded the budget for the project.

Mayor George Flaggs Jr. and Aldermen Michael Mayfield and Willis Thompson said EJES’ resume and willingness to work with the city were the reasons the company was hired.

“They had a phenomenal resume, and they had a reference list of a lot of projects they had done for other government entities,” Flaggs said. “I just thought they would be the perfect fit for this project, and they took a look at it and they said they were interested in it. They may be the right people for the job and we can get that project going.”

“We felt real good about them,” Mayfield said. “We feel they’ll do a good job. They’re very experienced, and we were looking for some people who we could get with at any given moment and sit down (with) for updates.”

Alderman Willis Thompson said EJES contacted the city about the project.

“They have a pretty extensive resume. They did a lot of federal work, and that made them interesting to me. They expressed an interest in the project and we thought we’d give them the opportunity,” he said.

Four companies submitted bids on the waterline project. The $8.57 million bid from T.L. Wallace Construction of Columbia was the highest of the four, with DirtWorks Inc. of Vicksburg coming in at $8.346 million. S.J. Louis Construction of Texas and Hemphill construction of Florence had the lowest bids of $7.626 million and $7.329 million, respectively.

All were more than double the project’s $3.565 million budget, which is composed of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers grant and city funds.

Part of the reason for the high bids, city officials believed, was the waterline’s proposed route, which took it from the water treatment plant on Haining Road, under North Washington Street, across the Vicksburg National Military Park, then down Fort Hill Drive to tie into an existing line at Jackson Street.

Flaggs and the aldermen believe the city can use an existing right of way south along North Washington, but they added they’re going to wit for EJES’ recommendation. And they believe there is enough information from the IMS plans to prevent the city from starting from scratch.

“We’re not counting our ducks on it (going down North Washington), but we’re still in there looking on them, anyway, as far as North Washington is concerned,” Mayfield said.

“I think they have enough information from the previous engineering firm so they won’t have to,” Flaggs said.

He said he will let EJES recommend the most cost-effective route, adding the city may be able increase the dimension and size of pipe for the waterline, which is presently set as 30-inches in the project plans.

“I’m going to wait on them. They have a broad range of knowledge and experience in that area, so we’re going to wait and let them recommend to us. But I think we’re headed in the right direction,” Flaggs said.

Thompson said EJES will recommend some options for the waterline.

“We have a budget to work in and we have to do it all within that budget,” he said, adding the engineers will offer some possible options.

“We’re not going to totally abandon what we’ve done. We’re going to pickup and add to it,” he said.

“This is a project, I think, is as vital as far as the city of Vicksburg is concerned, making sure we can maintain any unexpected changes as far something happening to our main waterline,” Mayfield said. “This would hopefully put us in a position where we won’t have any serious interruption or something that might have us to forego long periods without water in any section of the city and in some cases, most of the city.”

Known by city officials as the “592 water project,” because of the funding source for the $2.45 million Corps grant, work on the waterline began in 2010 after a landslide at the construction of the Jesse Brent Lower Mississippi River Museum and Interpretive Center threatened the city’s main waterline.

IMS Engineers was hired to handle the water project in November 2010 during the administration of former Mayor Paul Winfield. The company replaced the Jackson engineering firm Allen & Hoshall, which had been contracted by the city for engineering services to the city for 20 years.

Planning for the project then lapsed until February 2014, when Flaggs revived it.