A Madison contractor will complete rehabilitation work on North Washington Street in Vicksburg.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Tuesday awarded the contract for the project to A J Construction of Madison.

The company was the low bidder on the project with a bid of $1,222,747, which is within the estimated project budget of more than $1.2 million. Also submitting bids were APAC of Mississippi, which bid $1,340,492, and Central Asphalt of Vicksburg, which bid $1,388,543.

A starting date for the project has not been set.

Plans for the rehabilitation project include repaving North Washington Street and reducing it to two lanes with a catch basin for mudslides and a bicycle lane that will be part of a proposed estimated 9.5-mile bicycle trail through Vicksburg that will follow a path from the Mississippi Welcome Center on Washington Street to its terminus at Haining Road.

The route includes a tour through Vicksburg’s downtown that will follow the city’s downtown walking trails.

From Haining Road, cyclists can continue to U.S. 61 North and catch the Great River Road Bike Trail that runs from Walls in DeSoto County to Tunica. Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said the bicycle trail remains part of the project. The project is funded by money from an $11 million loan the city made for capital improvements. The $11 million is being paid off with revenue from the city’s share of state sales tax on purchases made through the Internet.

The bids by A J Construction, APAC of Mississippi and Central Asphalt marked the second time the board opened bids for the project. The initial bids for the project were opened in August and were $1 million or more than the project budget.

Those bids were rejected by the board and city officials and representatives with project engineer EJES Inc. met in August to alter the plans and design for the project to rehabilitate North Washington Street from Jackson Street to Haining Road in an effort to reduce the project’s cost.

Flaggs said in October most of the problems involved proposed work on Haining Road, adding, “I think we can do some other things later. I think we overestimated and we are where we want to be now.

“The whole idea is to clean up that quarter going up from the Klondyke to Haining Road,” he said.

Presently, Washington Street from Haining Road to Jackson Street is a narrow, four-lane north-south road with a 45 mph speed limit. The street is bounded on the west by the Yazoo Diversion Canal and on the East by a ridge. During heavy rains, loose dirt and mud break loose from the ridge, causing slides that spill into the northbound lanes and block them.

The southbound lanes were torn up and later resurfaced during the construction of the city’s auxiliary waterline, which intersects with the main line near Jackson Street.

While the speed limit on Washington Street from Haining Road north was recently reduced from 45 to 35 mph, the speed limit on Washington from Haining Road to Jackson Street remains at 45 mph.