Showers ending Saturday morning didn’t affect one of the city’s main water pipes that engineers have been watching for more than a week, following a March 26 land shift that put the pipe in jeopardy.

“Everything is good, and there are no changes in the status of the pipe,” said Kavanaugh Breazeale, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “We are cautiously optimistic everything will remain secure as we continue to look for a permanent fix.”

Working in tandem with city crews, the Corps last week began working immediately to temporarily stabilize the 36-inch concrete pipe, which runs about three feet beneath Washington Street and is a key link in supplying the city’s roughly 10,000 metered residential and commercial customers. The initial land shift left Washington Street with several six-inch cracks between Jackson and Main streets, and caused a visible dip along the nearby sidewalk. 

Breazeale said Corps workers would continue monitoring the pipe Saturday and today as necessary. The City of Vicksburg is providing continual updates of the water main situation on its recorded action line at 601-801-3443. City and Corps officials have been steadily discussing options for permanently stabilizing the pipe, said Breazeale, and those talks will continue this week. 

While no water service has been lost in the city since the pipe’s stability was compromised, city emergency management officials have suggested residents keep a three-day supply of bottled water on hand.

About a half inch of rainfall was recorded at the city’s wastewater treatment plant on Rifle Range Road between Friday night and Saturday morning. The extended weather forecast for Vicksburg does not show any chance of rain again until Tuesday night and into Wednesday.

The city preemptively declared a local emergency Monday to free up any emergency spending needed for the pipe, but thus far have not publicly announced any plans for a permanent fix. Meanwhile, ground work near the site of the land shift on a developing museum has been halted.

Contract construction crews had been working for months near Washington and Jackson streets, doing the initial groundwork on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Interpretive Center, set to open sometime next year just south of where the mammoth, 1,450-ton MV Mississippi IV was placed in 2007.

Concern over the pipe will also likely lead to last minute changes to the April 16-17 Riverfest celebration.

Riverfest President Erin Hern said festival organizers plan to move the location of their Washington Street stage south one block, from the corner of Crawford and Grove streets to China and South streets. The move, however, is pending approval by the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen, who are set to take up the issue at a regular board meeting Monday morning.

The water main is the primary line from the city’s water plant on Haining Road, which draws its water from several nearby wells. The main line runs along North Washington Street, and splits into two 24-inch lines running in opposite directions near Jackson Street. From there, the system branches out into webs of 18-, 10- and 8-inch lines.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com