Warren County supervisors will try again to find a contractor to replace the Ballground Road bridge.

The supervisors Monday followed the advice of their engineers and rejected a $1.22 million bid by Dozer LLC of Natchez to replace the span. The State Aid project estimate was $820,216. The supervisors will re-bid the project in January.

The timber bridge, which is a relief bridge, was closed during the summer after a bridge inspection determined it was unsafe. It was repaired and put back into service until it can be replaced. It is on the county’s State Aid list to be replaced.

“Given the fact that it was 36 percent over the State Aid estimate, which amounted to $300,000 over estimate on a $1.1 million bid, it would probably behoove us to give it some time for consideration,” Board of Supervisors president Richard George said.

“We have a bridge that is open to traffic now, and this isn’t the ideal time to start bridge work.

“If we did not have a choice, it would be different, but we do have a choice, so we have time to think about it.”

Located about 2 miles east of Mississippi 3, the bridge was closed in July. It had been slowly deteriorating for several years, and the Warren County Board of Supervisors approved replacing it more than two years ago, but funding was unavailable at the time.

Engineers for Stantec, the county’s State Aid engineer, had been monitoring the bridge about every three months since the last State Aide bridge inspection program in 2016 to make sure it was passable until funding was available.

Because of the condition of the timbers, the bridge’s weight limit had been reduced, and a follow-up inspection in July indicated several pilings on the bridge were in bad enough shape to close the bridge.

The deteriorated pilings were replaced with concrete in September, at a cost between $35,000 and $40,000 that was already budgeted as part of the money for permanently replacing the bridge.