NATCHEZ — Plans for the long-awaited Port Connector Road project will include a bridge with some unique engineering characteristics.

County Engineer Jim Marlow said the project should break ground this month as soon as the final right of ways and permits to begin construction are acquired.

“I have the construction plans, and there is going to be a nice bridge in there,” Marlow said.

The bridge plans required unique engineering specifications because of a steep slope and curve required by the topography of the area, Adams County Board of Supervisors President Darryl Grennell said.

Jordan Kaiser and Sessions LLC engineer Doug Wimberly, who worked the design for the project, said his firm contracted out a private structural engineer for the bridge to adapt to the unique requirements.

“What’s unique about that bridge is the grade of the road coming off the steep bluff onto the port, so its loping downhill and at the same time turning to the left (going toward the port),” Wimberly said.

Wimblerly said the bridge will have an 8-percent grade, which is relatively steep.

Extending Government Fleet Road from Providence Road to the port will cut two miles off the trip trucks must make to the port, Wimberly said.

It will also prevent the railroad from interfering with port traffic, he said.

Wimberly said the railroad going through port traffic has not caused problems lately, but the interference did cause hassles when International Paper was open and traffic was heavier.

Marlow said smoother port transportation that will avoids rail lines could be important for future industrial and rail traffic prospects, he said.

“It will provide much easier access (to the port), and we’re hoping that we will keep the railroad and have an increase in rail traffic,” Marlow said.

The project also involves realigning and widening Government Fleet Road and adding and an extension to the L.E. Barry Road near the port. The work will include grading, drainage, paving work and bridge work.

The project was estimated to cost $3.5 million. The supervisors accepted for $3.6 million in August from W.E. Blain and Sons, Inc.

The project is expected to take more than one year to complete, Grennell said.

It will be funded on an 80/20 match, with up to $3,096,067 in funds from the National Highway System Intermodal Connector Improvement Program, a Mississippi Department of Transportation press release said.

Adams County Chancery Clerk Tommy O’Beirne has said the county will fund an estimated $400,000 for the project during the next fiscal year and has already spent an estimated $300,000 on the project.

The county has been working with MDOT on the project for at least six years.