[1/21/05]Rain has washed away a hillside and made stabilization work necessary around two utility lines along North Frontage Road and Confederate Avenue.

Erosion along the west side of Confederate Avenue beside Vicksburg High School caused a water line to break, and water tunneling along fiber-optic cables along the south side of North Frontage Road west of Iowa Boulevard has caused sinkholes up to about 10 feet deep.

Both problems are expected to be repaired by around the middle of next week, representatives of the cable company and the city said.

Last year was one of the rainiest on record for Vicksburg, and precipitation measured so far this year, 3.92 inches, has also been above the average for the same period, 3.6 inches.

The erosion around the cables along North Frontage Road is marked with orange fluorescent paint visible from the road. The holes are about 15 feet from the south side of the road, less than a quarter-mile west of Iowa Boulevard.

“Water will follow the cable and create like a pipe, an opening there,” James “Bubba” Rainer, Vicksburg director of public works, said of the North Frontage Road sinkholes. “It will take the soil down below the (North Frontage Road bridge over railroad tracks, to the west).”

The ground above the cable trench will collapse when enough soil has washed away, Rainer added.

The water-line break affected only one home, with low water pressure, Rainer said.

The company has notified the city’s street department and low-grade concrete will probably be used to repair the damage, Rainer said.

The fiber-optic cable along which the sinkholes have developed is part of a 20,000-mile network in the eastern United States that is maintained by a company called TelCove. Company spokesman Sherry Guth said it was installed here about four years ago and the fact that it has been exposed does not create a hazard.

Last year’s rainfall total in Vicksburg was the largest in at least 37 years.