AN EXTENSION OF LAKE Harbour Drive would link the Ridgeland thoroughfare to Highland Colony Parkway if federal funding continues to be allocated for the project, city officials said.

“We started talking about the possibility of this flyover bridge roughly six years ago,” Ward 1 Alderman Ken Heard said. “We threw this idea to Washington and got some earmark funding at least for the design. It would give us another east-west corridor.”

The proposed road would extend eight-tenths of a mile from Lake Harbour at U.S. 51, cross the Illinois Central Railroad tracks, rise and cross I-55 and end at the parkway.

“But it will require a good bit of acquisitions of property south of the existing Freedom Ridge Park,” Heard said. “Knowing we really wanted to pursue this, we’ve already bought a sliver of land in the area where the bridge comes down onto the road.”

Expected to be complete by 2013, officials believe the Lake Harbour expansion will relieve traffic in other areas and provide another route connecting two retail centers.

“It would take tons of pressure off Jackson Street and provide a good back-and-forth between Northpark and Renaissance and any neighborhoods on the west side,” Heard said. “As we’ve been successful on annexation on the southwest and on Highland Colony Parkway, it just makes sense.”

EIGHTY PERCENT OF THE $20 million expansion project is being covered by the federal government, and Ridgeland is responsible for the remainder.

“The amount approved at this point is $10 million,” McGee said. “It is expected that the total project cost will be in the area of $20 million, and we have asked Congress to approve the additional funding. At this time, the environmental impact study is being done. Once this is complete, we expect to start the design.”

If Congress does not allocate more money for the project, however, Ridgeland officials may consider levying a 1-cent sales tax to pay for it.

“This is an unbelievable example of the good a local option sales tax would do,” Heard said. “You’d take a penny and earmark it for the project then take it away when it’s complete.” McGee agreed.

“That would certainly be a way to do it, if the Legislature allows it,” he said.

Local option sales taxes are generally used for projects such as the Lake Harbour extension and are appended onto the state’s base sales-tax rate. The option is placed on a referendum and must receive 60 percent approval for implementation.

“The speed of it all is contingent on continued funding from Washington,” Heard said. “But I think everybody in the city will be tickled to death about this.”

The widening of Lake Harbour Drive from U.S. 51 to Northpark Drive is expected to begin by early fall. That is a $16 million project.