Corps museum could open in 2009|[04/12/07]

Published 12:00 am Thursday, April 12, 2007

Even if it didn’t get off to a record start, the pace of efforts to bring a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers interpretive museum to fruition here has quickened, a key Corps project manager said Wednesday.

&#8220It was authorized in 1992 and we’ve awarded a contract in 2007. You talk about speeding things through …,” said Tommy Hengst, senior project for the Vicksburg District.

Hengst told members of the Vicksburg Lions Club about recent developments – including a target date of spring 2009 for a grand opening.

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The museum is one component of downtown redevelopment efforts and will be centered with other projects near City Front.

Already in place are a river-themed children’s art park and fountain area and historic murals. In process are a transportation museum in the former Levee Street Depot, a Vicksburg Junior Auxiliary-sponsored playground and more murals.

The Corps museum’s first phase will entail moving the 2,000-ton, 218-foot MV Mississippi, dry-docked at Vicksburg Harbor since the city purchased it for $1 in 1995, onto the site at Jackson Street between Washington and Levee streets.

A $4.89 million contract was awarded last month to Procon Inc. of Brandon to move the vessel downriver to Morgan City, La., so it can be repainted and have beams attached underneath to allow its safe &#8220dollying up” to dry ground once it returns to Vicksburg, Hengst said.

Vicksburg will be one of very few places along the Mississippi River where visitors can board and learn about an actual river towboat.

The MV Mississippi was the Corps’ river flagship until it was replaced by a newer model.

Hengst said the dollying will occur across North Washington Street from Klondyke and the boat will be rolled into position from there.

Entergy has agreed to raise power lines in the area to ensure a safe transition, Hengst said.

Last week, the City of Vicksburg turned over land to the Corps to speed up the project. It was originally purchased by the city for $692,000 in order to secure the museum site. It will be given to the Corps as a matching grant to the project, Mayor Laurence Leyens said.

After major flooding in 1927, Congress directed the Corps to undertake flood control and navigation work along the Mississippi, the nation’s largest river.

Much of that work has been directed from Vicksburg, headquarters of the Mississippi River Commission, Mississippi Valley Division, Vicksburg District and Engineering Research and Development Center. All are Corps entities and together they employ about 3,000 people.

A contract to begin building the facility that will house exhibits such as interactive views of the Mississippi River and its tributaries is expected to be awarded by August of this year.

A third phase, a refurbishing of the century-old Fairgrounds Street bridge to serve as a walkway at the site, may begin by August 2008. Plans are in the works for Kansas City Southern Railway to furnish the Corps with flat cars for moving spans of the bridge’s road deck next to the main exhibit hall, where it will lead to an observation deck near KCS tracks.

&#8220We feel the plans are sufficient,” Hengst said, adding the pilings on the old bridge date to the early 20th century when they were part of an equally dated Mississippi River bridge at Dubuque, Iowa.

Congressional appropriations from the federal government’s budget for 2007-08 are still being finalized. In 2006, the Corps received $51 million from Congress from the 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations Act.

Out of that, the Corps was authorized to use $5 million of it for the project, officially named the Lower Mississippi River Museum and Interpretive Site.