The Warren County Port Commission moved ahead Monday with a Jackson-based engineering firm for a project in the Ceres Industrial Park.

In a meeting earlier in the month, the commission selected Neel-Schaffer Engineering Solutions to begin negotiating engineering costs for work to expand a road in the industrial park near Tyson. The 1,200-foot expansion of the existing road is aimed at making a large, greenfield site in the park more attractive to potential economic development projects.

Monday, the Commission agreed to a contract with Neel-Schafer in the amount of $29,000. The contract calls for the firm to design the road, which will need to cross over a small creek that runs behind Tyson and Unified Brands.

The agreement also calls for the firm to have those plans finalized by mid-February.

“This is just another step to make that site more attractive and reduce any risk potential clients might have in that site,” said Pablo Diaz, Vicksburg Warren Economic Development Partnership executive director. “Each step we take is to reduce the risk factor for clients who might consider this site.”

Diaz said the greenfield site is one that, when developed would be in excess of 150 acres, which puts would put it in the running for most economic development projects.

Two other greenfield sites at Ceres are much smaller, near 40 acres, and have limitations, such as not being a regular, mostly square shape and not having enough room for an industry to expand. The larger site does not have any such limitations.

As for building the road, Diaz said the first step is determining how much a road would cost and then working to find revenue sources to pay for the construction.

“We don’t necessarily need to have a commitment from an industry to build the road,” he said. “If we can find the money to pay for it, we might decide to go ahead and build the road before we have someone to move in.”