Erosion problems at the north and south approaches to the Hutson Street bridge in the Kings community of North Vicksburg have forced city officials to close the wooden span until further notice.
“The area under the bridge approaches are washing out,” public works Director Garnet Van Norman said. “We have trucks and school buses crossing that bridge and we want to prevent anything happening with that bridge, so we’re closing it for safety.”
Van Norman said the problem was discovered by road crews working in the area right after Christmas to remove mud from streets in Kings after a series of heavy rains soaked the area.
“They noticed the area around the approaches was washing away and let me know,” he said. “The bridge is built almost like a railroad trestle.”
Hutson Street is a narrow city street that runs west off North Washington Street, crosses Kansas City Southern Railroad tracks and then turns north, where it dead-ends north of Kings Crossing Road.
The bridge is on the west side of the tracks and spans a drainage canal north of Round Alley, a dead-end street that runs west off Hutson. It runs parallel to a KCS railroad trestle, and a view from the trestle shows how the soil has been eaten away by swift water.
The bridge was submerged during the 2011 spring Mississippi River flood, which rose to record heights, cresting at 57.1 feet at Vicksburg, or 14.1 feet above flood stage and nine-tenths of a foot above the Great Flood of 1927. Kings was under about 14 feet of water during the flood.
“The flood may have contributed to the problem, but a lot of water goes under that bridge,” Van Norman said. He did not know how old the bridge is, adding, “the railroad could have built it.”
“That bridge was there when Kings was annexed into the city in 1988, and I remember that bridge as young man,” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said. “I didn’t like the way that bridge was built. It should be a roadway. A large volume of water goes through there.”
Mayfield said he planned to meet with Van Norman to look at the bridge and find a way to resolve the problem.
“We’re going to get into it and see what and how bad the problem is,” Van Norman said. “Then we’ll make a decision whether to fix the approaches or replace it. It’s a wooden bridge on wooden pilings.”
He did not know whether city employees will make the repairs or the city will have to hire a private contractor. “It all depends on what we find,” he said.
Mayfield said he would like to see a paved roadway over a culvert crossing the canal instead of a bridge. But whatever is done, he said, it should be done as soon as possible.
“We have school buses that go on that road, and if they have to detour, they may have to go 1/2-mile around or possibly a mile — depending on which end they are — to get to the other end,” we need to take care of this as fast as we can.”