Mississippi 465, the main route from U.S. 61 to Eagle Lake, should reopen by 4 p.m. Thursday after shoulders are shored up and lane stripes are painted, a top state engineer said.

New gravel will be spread along the outer lanes by this evening, Mississippi Department of Transportation Central District Engineer Kevin Magee said.

Paint used to stripe the road is water-based and must be applied between intermittent rainfall expected in Vicksburg all week long, Magee said.

“We’ll have to work around that this afternoon,” Magee said this morning. “But, after that’s done, we’ll open it back up.”

Between a quarter and a half-inch of rain were predicted for the period today before 7 p.m. Rain chances are 30 percent Thursday, with scattered showers after 1 p.m.

MDOT closed the highway between U.S. 61 North and Eagle Lake on May 3 as the historic flood that crested at Vicksburg on May 19 at 57.1 feet approached. Floodwater over some sections of the two-lane highway reached 6 feet deep during the flood weeks.

As the river began its rise in late April, all 600 residences at Eagle Lake were ordered to evacuate. Only a handful of people stayed after all but one route to the oxbow lake were shut down.

That route, north of the lake and through Issaquena and Sharkey counties, added almost two hours to the trip from Vicksburg that regularly takes about 45 minutes on Mississippi 465.

Water receded from the road between U.S. 61 and Steele Bayou in the past two weeks, but tests for subsurface seepage and repairs have continued.

Patches were applied on rough spots last weekend on the roadway’s thin surface atop the mainline Mississippi River levee.

More permanent repairs are being considered, Magee has said.

Power was restored last Friday evening in Redwood and a substation serving International Paper’s mill on Mississippi 3 was expected to be ready for “general delivery,” said Ron White, manager of system services for Yazoo Valley Electric Power Association.

IP officials plan to return to full production by month’s end, at the latest.