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NATCHEZ — A groundbreaking Tuesday morning marked the beginning of repairs to what is the “most traveled bridge in the inner city of Natchez” outside of the U.S. 61 bypass and the Mississippi River crossing, Mayor Dan Gibson said.

The Canal Street bridge catches traffic going to and from Downtown Natchez, but since December 2023 has had a 5-ton weight limit posted to due the deterioration of at least three of the nine steel girders that support the bridge.

Dozer Construction has been selected to do the repair, which can be done starting underneath the bridge without closing any lanes. Once they reach the point of replacing joints in the road, they can do so by closing one lane at a time so that traffic may still pass through easily, said Bill Jones of Dozer. The repair work should take 100 working days from start to finish, he said.

“That should come as a great relief to all of us,” Gibson said.

He added himself, Natchez City Clerk Megan Edmonds, Natchez City Planner James Johnston and the Aldermen had been working to see the project through, though it’s expensive and not in their budget.

“We have been working as a team to make this happen and it has been difficult. This is a very expensive repair that is going to end up costing in the neighborhood of $600,000. That is money we have not budgeted. We’re so grateful to have a local company Dozer Construction, the same company now doing the Morgantown Road project, to now take on this endeavor,” Gibson said. “It’s so important that we get this bridge repaired.”

The bridge, built in 1939, is in need of replacing but the city can’t front the $6 million cost of doing so, officials have said. Once the repairs are made, it will still require monthly inspection while the city continues working to identify the funds for replacing the bridge.