Columbus officials plan to make a pitch to congressional representatives for funding of up to four infrastructure projects that would improve streets and drainage in the city.

Vice Mayor Bill Gavin, who is handling mayoral duties while Mayor Robert Smith recovers from a hospital stint in February, said Friday he met with City Engineer Kevin Stafford about putting together a “wishlist” of projects that could be funded through President Joe Biden’s proposed $3 trillion package, which would include approximately $1 trillion for infrastructure, the Associated Press reported.

Stafford said a representative from District 1 Rep. Trent Kelly’s office reached out to the city last week about potential infrastructure projects that could be funded through the plan if Congress passes it.

“Right now, the word on the street is there will be funding that’s going to come out for a myriad of things,” Stafford said. “… There’s a potential that this legislation will allow for some specific projects to go specifically to cities, so that’s what they — they being Trent Kelly’s office — was asking us, ‘Hey, if you had a few projects that you could throw out that you want as your top priorities, what are they?’”

The four projects the city has come up with would total $3.55 million, but Stafford emphasized there is no guarantee Columbus will receive funding for any of the “potential” projects, much less all of them.

“I can’t emphasize, underline, bold, capitalize ‘potential’ (enough),” Stafford said.

The first of the four projects, which Gavin announced Thursday night at a candidate forum for those running for the upcoming municipal elections, would widen parts of Bluecutt Road, adding a center lane, possibly a bike lane and a traffic light at the intersection with Leigh Drive. Stafford said that project will cost $1.75 million.

“That’s our No. 1 ask, if you will,” Stafford said.

The second priority project would be to pave and improve Fifth Street North, from the Magnolia Bowl to the intersection of Highways 45 and 82. Stafford pointed out the striping has faded on that particular stretch and that pedestrians often cross it without crosswalks while drivers speed through the area.

“That road is really, really wide and it has a tendency to promote speeding because it’s so wide open, and there’s zero accommodations for pedestrians or bikes,” Stafford said.

The proposed $1.15 million project would narrow the road and add sidewalks, crosswalks, islands and landscaping, making it more pedestrian-friendly and hopefully reducing speeding, Stafford said.

The third project would add a parking lot at the Columbus Amphitheater across the Tombigbee River from the riverwalk, an approximately $500,000 ask, Stafford said. The fourth project — $150,000 — would update the city’s drainage master drainage plan.

Stafford said the last time the city had a drainage master plan completed was in 1972. The new project would take a look at the plans, determine which recommendations from the time period are still valid and which ones need to be updated, while also including more of the properties and infrastructure in the city, since the city’s boundaries are not the same as they were 50 years ago.

Gavin said he has high hopes for the street projects in particular.

“All of these are things that make the city better,” Gavin said. “While we’ve got an opportunity to get some … assistance in paying for this, I think it’s a very viable thing to do, so I spent some time (Thursday) putting that together.”

Conflict disclosure: Managing Editor Zack Plair took part in editing this article. He is currently in legal proceedings that involve the city of Columbus. Details are available in previous reporting.