Utility-related issues have cleared up in the project to replace the E.W. Haining Road bridge at the Port of Vicksburg.

A $5,000 lump sum fee negotiated previously by the City of Vicksburg and Kansas City Southern Railway for city gas lines to cross railroad property will now be paid out of grant funds financing the multimillion-dollar bridge project, according to agreements signed by Vicksburg and Warren County governing boards Monday.

Supervisors were prompted to pass a resolution to that effect because they are the conduit for the grant money. City officials signed the agreement because it is their gas lines.

Also, Entergy has agreed to move overhead power lines in close proximity to the bridge, county engineers said.

Financed with a $10 million Katrina-related disaster recovery grant secured in September, the 2 1/2-year project will involve replacing the current two-lane bridge with a wider, four-lane structure capable of handling greater volumes of trucks.

Traffic entering the port will still use the existing bridge while the new one is built.

Once that is complete, the current structure will be taken down and two additional lanes constructed. Part of the project also involves improvements at the bridge’s intersection with North Washington Street. The decades-old bridge is the lone land access point to port industries.

Work on the bridge itself and to the intersection is estimated to soak up about $7.3 million of the available funds, according to the project’s financial statements.

More than $340 million in such Community Development Block Grants was available to Mississippi counties declared federal disaster areas after the 2005 storm. Areas around the port were declared blighted by Warren County supervisors in 2007 in order to ensure the county’s eligibility.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com