Repairs to Washington Street and a retaining wall south of the Washington Street bridge could be ready to go out for bid when the board meets April 16, Vicksburg Mayor Paul Winfield said.

He said the project is estimated to cost up to $225,000 and could take three months to complete.

The board declared a 30-day emergency for the street on Feb. 28 after city workers, repairing a waterline leak near the retaining wall south of the Washington Street bridge, reported the wall had shifted. On Friday, the board extended the emergency an additional 30 days.

Winfield met Monday with representatives for IMS Engineers of Jackson to discuss repair plans.

“They said they are waiting for the soil test results, but they have already done the design,” he said. “Six pallets of the street may have to be replaced, and the roadbed will have to be repaired to give it a better surface. The wall is in good shape, and it will be braced to make it stronger.”

He said up to eight vertical braces will be placed against the retaining wall and inserted into the bank for additional strength.

Interim city public works director Garnet Van Norman said on Feb. 28 that the crew repairing the leak apparently saw the wall move as heavy trucks went by, adding there is a gap between the wall and the slope. He said the wall was built either in 1929, when the bridge was built, or in the early 1930s.

The street was paved by pouring 10- by 20-foot concrete sections, or pallets.

Along with declaring the emergency, the board ordered that vehicles weighing more than 26,001 pounds, which includes tractor-trailer rigs, log trucks, school buses and large emergency vehicles, be detoured away from the street.

Built in 1929, the Washington Street bridge was closed in 2009 while Kansas City Southern Railway and Kanza Construction Co. of Topeka, Kan., worked to replace the bridge with a concrete bridge atop a railroad tunnel.

The $8.6 million project was funded with a mix of federal railroad improvement grant money and $3.7 million in bonds the city diverted from the development of a recreation park on Fisher Ferry Road and street paving.