The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen has approved an agreement with Neel-Schaffer Engineers to develop preliminary plans for the extension of Levee Street.

The board approved the agreement Monday. The work is part of an $85,00o contract with the engineers approved by the board in April for the extension project.

City officials propose to extend Levee Street from where it ends at its intersection with Dorsey Street in an industrial area in the southern part of the city to WaterView Casino. The extension project is part of the improvements outlined in the city’s Comprehensive Plan and the Mississippi Legislature has approved $5 million for the project.

City Attorney Nancy Thomas said the preliminary design “will show property owners how this road would impact their property and hopefully get them to donate right of way.”

When the board approved the Neel-Schaffer contract in April, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said the extension would allow 18-wheelers to travel from the Port of Vicksburg south to Interstate 20 without using Washington Street through the downtown area.

It would allow trucks leaving to port to travel North Washington Street to Levee Street, north of the downtown district, and then take Levee to rejoin Washington Street at WaterView Casino. Trucks moving to the port would take Levee Street at the casino and then North Washington to get to the port.

“This will be a tremendous relief to Washington Street,” Flaggs said at the time. “It will allow us to help our infrastructure on Washington Street and at the same time provide a better transportation route for tourists going through town.”

He said the extension, which will include a bicycle path, could open an area for development, saying a developer has expressed an interest in developing condominiums in a section of Oak Street in front of property owned by Golding Barge Lines.

“There is a lot of interest in that property for commercial use,” he said.

Flaggs said the extension project coincides with two other projects planned for Levee Street and the riverfront.

One is improvements on the north end of Levee Street involving sidewalks, improved parking for the Old Depot Museum in the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Depot, and other improvements to Levee Street.