A glitch in computer mapping and GPS system programs showing the wrong truck route through the city is causing problems for residents on Cherry Street and the downtown area.

“We’ve gotten a lot of complaints from people on Cherry Street about trucks in the area,” Mayor George Flaggs said.

And city officials are scrambling to get it right.

Deputy Vicksburg police chief Bobby Stewart said systems like Google Map, Mapquest and other GPS systems show the city’s old truck route to the Port of Vicksburg and the industries there like Ergon. That route goes down Clay Street to Cherry Street and then First East Street to North Washington Street.

The city’s truck route is South Washington Street from Interstate 20/U.S. 61 South to Levee Street north to the intersection of Levee and North Washington Streets. The route for trucks heading south from the port is North Washington to Levee Street and then south on Levee to South Washington Street and on to I-20 or U.S. 61 North.

“But a driver who’s using GPS or an Internet mapping service won’t see that. He’ll see the route going down Clay Street,” Stewart said. He said the city is adding more signs to show the correct route.

The present truck route has been altered twice, he said, once during the 2011 spring Mississippi flood when portions of North Washington Street were underwater, and when the Washington Street bridge near DiamondJacks was being replaced. Both times he said, trucks, except for local deliveries, were rerouted around town on U.S. 61 North and U.S. 61 South.

Stewart said many of the complaints the city has received about 18-wheelers downtown involve trucks making deliveries to local businesses and restaurants, which is allowed by the city.

“We are contacting the GPS mapping services and the Internet providers to tell them the information they have about the truck route is wrong, and getting them to change it,” he said. “It’s just taking time.”