A group of Dana Road residents have started a petition drive protesting using Dana Road as part of the proposed South Loop road, which will connect U.S. 61 South to Halls Ferry Road and provide an access road to the proposed sports complex on Fisher Ferry Road.

The group Concerned Citizens of Vicksburg has put the petition, entitled “Stop the Vicksburg South Loop Road,” on the website GoPetition.com.

According the petition’s preamble, the group is asking city officials to stop the South Loop Road expansion, adding, “This road will put the local community and children of Dana Road School in danger.”

The petition was posted Thursday. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen are expected Monday to name an engineering firm to determine a route and do the engineering and planning for the bypass road.

According to the board’s agenda, the committee appointed to select an engineering firm from five proposals is expected to recommend Stantec, which performed a $28,000 study during Mayor George Flaggs Jr.’s first term recommending a South Loop route that included Dana Road.

Michael Winkler, a member of the Concerned Citizens group, is on Monday’s agenda to discuss the bypass road. He said the group does not oppose the sports complex.

“The problem is the route the road will take and its effect on the neighborhood, the school and the community. We want to stop them (the board) before they pursue this route, or try to at least have the information in place that this is going to be problematic.”

Presently, he said, traffic at Dana Road Elementary is heavily congested with cars sitting on Dana Road when parents drop off or pickup children.

The neighborhood faces the potential of constant traffic on the road if Dana Road is included as part of the South Loop, he said, adding that traffic could also create problems for the school.

The Stantec study was one of two studies performed for a bypass road connecting U.S. 61 South and Halls Ferry Road. The first was done by Neel-Schaffer Engineering in 1996 and shows a route beginning on U.S. 61 South at Rifle Range Road, which is north of Dana Road, and ending on Halls Ferry Road somewhere north of Melrose Avenue.

The 1996 route was displayed on a map Mayor George Flaggs Jr. included when he traveled to Washington, D.C., in 2016 seeking federal funding for the project and a bypass to connect U.S. 61 North to Haining Road and the Port of Vicksburg.

The Neel-Schaffer route was also included in a handout from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center that was used in a discussion of a bypass Road to help ERDC traffic.

“If the city had an engineering design, and the mayor has shown everything that Neel Schaffer laid out, when has this been changed?” Winkler said. “Why are they considering other options?”

Flaggs said the Stantec study was commissioned because the route designated by Neel-Schaffer was in a floodplain.

“It would have to have bridges; it would cost millions and million of dollars to build bridges for that road,” he said. “Stantec came back with the study that it was more feasible using Dana Road.”

Flaggs believes the petition is premature, because a route for the bypass road has not been selected.

“The Board of Mayor and Aldermen has not made any determination where that road will be,” he said. “ One of the engineer’s assignments will be to look at other route options. Besides that, I’m appoint a committee to work with them, and a resident from the area and a representative from ERDC will be on the committee and a representative from the sports fields.

“The committee will work with engineer and tell us what’s feasible.”

He said he did not understand Winkler’s efforts. “First of all, he’s in the county. He’s not a city resident. “

Winkler said he lives in the county, “But the road doesn’t stop at the city line. Dana Road School is not in the city. My representation is through the Board of Supervisors, and my supervisor is against this road. This traffic that comes from the city will impact the school, and the residents who live between the school and Highway 61.

District 4 Supervisor John Carlisle said the bypass road will put an unusual amount of traffic on Dana Road, and Dana Road is not built for heavy traffic loads.

“I don’t see where it’s going to be any more beneficial to the people who live there. I’m against it.”