City officials expect to spend up to more than $2 million to complete the second phase of a street paving project to resurface all or part of at least 11 streets in the North and South wards.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday approved engineering contracts with Stantec and AJA Management & Technical Services of Jackson to prepare the drawings and designs for the project.

AJA is doing the engineering for the South Ward projects, while Stantec will do the same work for the North Ward streets.

According to the AJA contract, the South Ward paving project involves work on seven streets:  Halls Ferry Road from Bowmar Avenue to Fisher Ferry Road, YMCA Place, Monument Place, Moonmist Drive from Porter’s Chapel Road to Enchanted Drive, Enchanted Drive, Dos Casas Lane beginning at Indiana Avenue and Capri Drive.

“Most of those streets are short streets and can be paved at a low cost,” South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson said. “We will pave only certain areas on some of the longer streets. We may have to do that with Halls Ferry. We’ll know for sure after we see how much that (Halls Ferry) project will cost.”

He said work will also involve repairs to roadbeds and underground utilities.

“These were all recommended on the road survey we had done (in early 2016),” he said.

He said an eighth street, Cypress Center Drive, has been added to the list. The street, which is the access to the Holiday Inn Express and El Sombrero Restaurant, was to have been overlaid during the first phase of paving but was pulled from the list at the last minute. The engineering, Thompson said, has already been done.

“It’s a very short street, but it gets a lot traffic,” Thompson said.

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield estimated the second phase of paving in the North Ward will run about $700,000.

“We’re not going to pave entire streets like we did in the first phase,” he said, adding Mission 66, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and some streets in Cedar Hill Cemetery were paved in the first phase.

“What we’re going to do in this phase is pave sections of the streets where they have problems,” he said, pointing out sections of Sky Farm Avenue, Washington Street and Farmer Street are among the streets designated for work.

“There will be more added to that,” Mayfield said. “I am still looking at other areas. We’ll probably end up with seven to eight streets.”

The paving projects are part of the city’s $9.2 million capital improvements bond issue. A total of $4.6 million in bond funds were allocated for paving, which was split into two phases.

Work in the South Ward under the first phase totaled $995,850.27 and include paving the entire length of Warrenton Road. The first phase of North Ward paving totaled $1.88 million.