The city of Vicksburg has secured the final right of way to relocate the city’s utility lines on South Frontage Road.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday approved an agreement to acquire a strip of land along Porters Chapel Road from Christopher Gillis and Joanna Gillis for $9,972.90. Under the agreement, the city is paying the Gillises $1,085 for the property and $8,887.90 to build a privacy fence because the utility easement will be close to the house and require a fence.

“That was it; it’s over,” South Ward Alderman Alex Monsour said after the vote.

The vote comes as city officials learn the Mississippi Department of Transportation and Development has approved the city’s permit to relocate the utility lines on the state right of way. City attorney Nancy Thomas said city officials are waiting on project approval from the Mississippi Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Quality.

The utilities relocation is the final project before work can begin on the South Frontage Road extension, which will link the Outlets at Vicksburg and other restaurants and businesses on East Clay Street and U.S. 80 to the west side of South Frontage Road.

Project plans call for an overpass crossing the Kansas City Southern railroad tracks to link the east and west sides.

“This is another game changer. It will make a difference in Vicksburg,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said.

The relocation was delayed while MDOT engineers and representatives of Waggoner Engineering reviewed and made changes in the plans for the project. Thomas said the permit was part of the approval of the engineering by MDOT.

In 2007, a Federal Highway Administration study on the project issued a “finding of no significant impact,” clearing the way for the project.

Four years later, the Mississippi Department of Transportation bought five properties along the road to secure rights of way for the project, and in April 2014, the Legislature approved $4 million in its fiscal 2015 highway budget to begin planning the South Frontage Road expansion.

The Legislature later allocated another $18 million toward the project.