Wisconsin Avenue between Bazinsky and Porters Chapel roads will be closed for up to 9 months beginning in late September to allow the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center to build a bridge and an access road beneath.

Click here for a map of the road closure

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen, which has been reviewing the request, OK’d the plan at a meeting Wednesday morning. Costs will be paid with federal funds.

Completed, the access road will connect ERDC’s computer center with its main campus without requiring employees to leave and re-enter secured areas.

South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman said one of the conditions of the agreement is traffic will not be detoured through the Enchanted Hills residential area, as originally proposed. Instead, he said signs on Wisconsin will detour traffic onto Manor Drive, which will allow motorists to access either Halls Ferry Road or Indiana Avenue via Plaza Drive and South Frontage Road.

ERDC and city officials hashed out the details of the project at a meeting Tuesday, at which they agreed on a 270-day construction period. ERDC officials plan to open the project to bids on Tuesday and will have it under way no sooner than Sept. 28, said city officials.  

ERDC’s main gate is on Halls Ferry Road and has been since the Army Corps of Engineers lab was established in 1928. The compound has grown since, and a similar bridge with an ERDC roadway beneath already exists on Porters Chapel Road, south of the intersection with Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Avenue overpasses Interstate 20 and serves as a primary route into downtown Vicksburg for residents who live south of the interstate, along with Halls Ferry Road, Indiana Avenue and Warrenton Road. The mayor and aldermen first took up the road closure and construction project at a July 8 meeting, but tabled the matter to continue talks with ERDC officials and nail down a timeline. There was no discussion on the matter among the board on Wednesday.

Separately, traffic has been detoured through City Park off one of Vicksburg’s main downtown thoroughfares, Washington Street, since the Clark Street bridge was closed on Jan. 23. Kansas City Southern is to replace the 80-year-old bridge with a roadway-topped rail tunnel, but that project has yet to get under way. Public Works Director Bubba Rainer has estimated the tunnel could take about a year to complete once construction begins.

With an annual payroll of about $77.3 million, ERDC is one of Vicksburg’s largest employers. About 1,663 people are employed by ERDC — 1,177 federal, about 400 contractors and the rest students and temporary staff.

Last week, ERDC officials announced all environmental science staffers will be consolidated under one roof by late 2010 as part of $40 million worth of continuing and future construction. A two-story, 85,000-square-foot facility will be a new headquarters for about 300 engineers, scientists, technicians and administrative staff currently working in multiple buildings on ERDC’s 700 acres in Vicksburg.

The computer center, officially the Jamie Whitten Information Technology Center, houses some of the world’s most advanced computing systems.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com