Vicksburg moves forward with Haining Street Levee extension project

The City of Vicksburg will be advertising for an engineering firm to take on extending the Haining Street Levee to protect the city’s water supply.

During Monday’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting, the board approved advertising a Request for Quotation for the project, which will also allow Mississippi Forest Products to expand.

Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said if the levee had been extended several years ago, the break that caused the city to lose water for a week in 2017 would not have been under 10 feet of water. Work to repair the break was hampered by the flooded Mississippi River.

The state Legislature approved $1.2 million for the project, Flaggs added, but did not provide an estimated cost.