The Board of Mayor and Aldermen have hired a Jackson-based engineering firm to do the engineering and assessment of a $333,000 project to repair drainage problems at the Vicksburg Municipal Airport.

The board Monday approved a $57,000 contract with Neil Schaffer Engineers to perform the preliminary work for the project, which involves improving the drainage system at the airport.

City officials have received a Federal Aviation Administration Grant for the project, which will cover 90 percent, or $299,970 of the project’s $333,000 cost with the city and the Mississippi Department of Transportation splitting the remaining 10 percent, or $16,665 each.

The board applied for the grant in November.

At that time, public works director Garnet Van Norman said in November the work is overdue.

“The airport was built in the 40s,” he said. “It’s got old (storm drain) pipes running from all kinds of drainage basins, there’s three or four pipes that go under the runway itself and it needs to looked at and fixed.

“It needed to be fixed years ago, and they didn’t. Now they’re looking at how to assess it and try to fix it. It needs to be addressed. It’s several different catch basins around there that probably haven’t been taken care of over the last 70 years.”

Other than when floodwaters from the 2011 spring Mississippi River flood covered the airport’s south runway, Van Norman said he cannot recall the airport runway being flooded because of runoff from storms.

In a related matter, the board approved an amendment to a previous FAA project involving the installation of the airport’s precision approach path indicator, which was installed in 2016.

City attorney Nancy Thomas said the amendment involves removing trees from the approach path to the runways.