Two Vicksburg contractors were the low bidders on a project to build the Wisconsin connector road joining Wisconsin Avenue and North Frontage Road.

DirtWorks and Central Asphalt Co. were two of three companies submitting bids Friday for the project. DirtWorks bid $949,668.35, while Central Asphalt’s bid was $954,020.50. Hemphill Construction of Florence, which is handling several projects for the city, presented a bid of $1.081 million.

All three bids were under the project’s estimated $1.1 million cost. The city has a low-interest, $1.3 million CAP loan from the Mississippi Development Authority to build the road, which will cross the remainder of the old Battlefield Mall property now owned by JEBCO LLC, the parent company for Blackburn Motors.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen took all three under advisement, and could award a contract at a proposed special meeting Wednesday.

“Hallelujah,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said after the bid opening. “All of them came in under our budget. It can be done!” Several recent bids on other city projects have come in way above the estimated costs.

The connector road will run between the River Hills Bank property and the proposed site for the Cannon Honda and Cannon Toyota dealerships to be built west of the bank.

Right of way negotiations with the bank over repairs to potential damage to its parking lot caused by the roadwork delayed the project by preventing the city from getting a permit from the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

The city and the bank reached an agreement in November where the city will pay the bank an estimated $68,215.37 to repair the damage to the bank’s parking lot and entrance caused by the construction. MDOT issued the city’s permit Jan. 25.

A decision by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission in November 2013 approved rezoning the 22-acre tract along North Frontage owned by JEBCO LLC from C-4 commercial to planned use development, opening the way for the road. A planned use development, or PUD, designation allows light industrial operations, and cleared the way for the city to apply for the MDA loan.

• In another matter, the board rejected three bids for the proposed farmers market site at the corner of Jackson and South Washington streets.

All three bids were over the $550,000 budget for the project, with Barnard & Sons Construction of Mendenhall bidding $990,000; Fordice Construction of Vicksburg, $1.016 million; and Paul Jackson & Sons Construction of Brookhaven, $1.14 million. The project will be re-advertised at a later date.