Employees for project contractor Dirt Works could begin paving the Wisconsin connector road next week, public works director Garnet Van Norman said.

“I think that’s what they’re planning to do,” he said.

Van Norman said the August rains have affected the project.

“All the rain we had in August; that put everyone behind, all the subcontractors. It backed up everything,” he said.

The recent rainfall that hit last week has also contributed to the delay in completing the road.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen awarded the contract to build the road to Dirt Works in April, with an expected completion date in September, but the weather and other problems have managed to delay the project’s completion. The city has granted extensions because of the problems.

It was delayed during the summer after the contractor ran into a problem with soil in one section of the road, which needed to be replaced with better dirt.

In October, the board approved a change order on the project totaling $19,500 to install a conflict box in a section of the road to resolve a problem involving an existing sewer line remaining from the former Battlefield Mall, which once occupied the site.

The added work increased the project cost from $966,935 to $1.015 million. The city has a $1.3 million low-interest CAP loan from the Mississippi Development Authority for the road.

Van Norman said in October a conflict box is a structure that allows a utility line to be installed without affecting an existing line.

Plans for the road began in 2014 after a decision by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission to rezone a 22-acre tract along North Frontage owned by JEBCO LLC, the parent company for Blackburn Motors, from C-4 commercial to planned use development, which opened the way for the road.