Warren County approved funding Monday to help assure a Yazoo Diversion Canal widening project will move forward.

In agreeing to pay $56,168 more of the $3.6 million total cost, the county helped bridge a funding gap of about $150,000, depending on the City of Vicksburg securing funds from Community Development Block Grant sources for its share.

Most of the cost is to be paid with federal dollars.

The work has been planned for more than a decade by the Vicksburg District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the city and Warren County Port Commission.

This month has been crucial in the process due to funding deadlines.

Coupled with a $108,000 transfer in February from commission coffers to the city, Warren County has put $164,168 toward the project.

Still, federal funding is the next challenge to getting the work bid out, specifically from the Corps.

Warren County Port Commission Executive Director Jim Pilgrim told supervisors that the Corps’ $500,000 in funding was not in hand, but cited contacts the commission is working inside Congress. Funding still could be sought from other Corps projects that are not close to being bid.

The century-old canal that flows past City Front links the Mississippi River to the Port of Vicksburg and E.W. Haining Industrial Center. Making it deeper and wider will allow more traffic.

Both city and county boards acted in the past week to pony up their shares of funding for enlarging the size of the channel after construction bids opened in June came in more than $1 million over government estimates.

The low bid, $4,660,765, by Cleveland, Miss.-based 4H Construction Corporation expires Oct. 20.

The city has set a public hearing for Oct. 11 at 9 a.m. to gather public comment on its attempt to get $1 million more in block grant money to pay for infrastructure improvements relating to the widening project, seen as vital for keeping the port viable for business.

In other business, supervisors: