The relocation of two natural gas lines near unstable bulkheads of a support pier on the old U.S. 80 bridge will begin Monday after three years of negotiations, clearing the way for more expensive work to strengthen the soil on the Mississippi side of the river.

Crews contracted by Gulf South Pipeline will unearth the lines over two weeks, then put them back into service once the “shallow slide” against pier 2 is complete, bridge superintendent Herman Smith said. Pier 2 is the first large pier from the Mississippi bank.

Talks had gone back and forth since 2008 between the pipeline and bridge officials. Letters were written this year from bridge counsel to the pipeline reminding the utility of its contractual obligation to pay to replace the lines if they were ever abandoned, Smith said.

More than $6,700 in engineering and consulting fees were paid by the five-member Vicksburg Bridge Commission in 2010-11 toward the work, a budget comparison OK’d by commissioners approved Wednesday shows. No similar project is in the works for bridge right of way on the Louisiana side, where Smith says the bank has lost 15 to 18 feet of land since around 2008, the first of four floods on the Vicksburg gage in as many years.

A budget for 2011-12 adopted alongside it shows a $715,000 estimate on the full work, for which the panel expects bid specs to be presented by ABMB Engineers next month. Bridge finances at the end of the fiscal year showed a $264,315 loss, less than the $1.2 million loss originally budgeted due to delays in the anti-erosion work. Cash reserves built up over time, mainly from tolls on rail traffic, totaled $5,008,965.97 through Wednesday, Smith said.

Citing the bank work and pier repairs from four barge strikes this year, VBC chairman Bob Moss termed the budget “evolving” when asked about its constraints by District 3 member Dorwin Shields, appointed in January.

“It’s just a budget,” Moss said. “You can amend it. You can operate within it or against it.”

Also on Wednesday, commissioners billed $52,932.15 to barge companies for damages during four barge strikes this year.

A $51,028.71 chunk of the total was billed to Bluegrass Marine, operator of a southbound tow of bean barges that broke apart March 23 during the river’s first springtime crest, and Marquette Transportation, which owned the towboat. Both are based in Paducah, Ky.

One barge struck pier 2, sank and was stranded against the pier for 22 days. An additional $1,903.44 was billed to Nashville, Tenn.-based Ingram Barge Company, operator of a northbound tow that hit pier 5 on May 25.

Last Thursday, a northbound, 15-barge tow pushed by the Golden Eagle, also owned by Marquette, scraped piers 5 and 6 on the Louisiana side. Estimates for overtime costs and engineering costs should total $1,500 to $1,700, Smith said.