Levee Street closed while pavers removed for flood wall are replaced

Published 9:47 am Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Levee Street will be closed from its intersection at Washington and First East streets south to Grove Street until the end of the week.

City street department employees are  replacing pavers in the street removed during the extension of the floodwall in anticipation of the 2016 flood.

The street closure means southbound trucks will be rerouted on Washington Street to China Street, where they will be directed to Levee.

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Northbound trucks will be detoured to Clay Street and then to Washington. Levee Street businesses remain open.

“They began taking the floodwall down there last week,” Public Works Director Garnet Van Norman said Monday. “Hopefully, we won’t have to do this again.”

City crews began installing the floodwall in mid-December in anticipation of the Mississippi River reaching 52-foot crest in January.

The river crested in Vicksburg at 50 feet on Jan. 15. The floodwall, however, remained in place out of fear of a potential spring flood. The wall crosses Levee Street at Grove, but the timbers blocking the road were removed, re-opening the road after the river receded.

However, the pavers were not replaced in case the timbers had to be reinstalled.

About John Surratt

John Surratt is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a degree in general studies. He has worked as an editor, reporter and photographer for newspapers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post staff since 2011 and covers city government. He and his wife attend St. Paul Catholic Church and he is a member of the Port City Kiwanis Club.

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