Members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, the Riverfront Re-development Committee and other residents will head to New Orleans Nov. 2 to tour the New Orleans Riverfront.

Mayor George Flaggs Jr.  announced the trip at Wednesday’s meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen during discussion of an agenda item reserving the city’s shuttle bus for the trip.

The purpose of the trip, Flaggs said, is to get ideas for the redevelopment of the city’s riverfront area. He said the tour is at the invitation of Jose Alvarez, the principal member of the New Orleans architecture firm of Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, which did the design for the re-development of the New Orleans Riverfront area and Crescent Park, a riverfront park that opened in 2015.

The group leaves at 6 a.m. and will return that night. During the visit, the city delegation will visit the Riverfront, Moon Walk and the Crescent Park.

“He wanted us to see the waterfront in New Orleans, and also talk to us (about) how we can develop the Mississippi Riverfront,” he said. “Rather than just take the committee we appointed, we opened it up to some of the city’s employees and the board, and some merchants from downtown and some community leaders.

Vicksburg Main Street director Kim Hopkins said Alvarez will also show the group the master plan for the New Orleans’ waterfront area. She said the group plans to meet with him about 10 a.m.

“I think they’ve got a pretty full day for us,” she said.

In another matter, the board authorized Flaggs to sign an agreement with Stantec Consulting to perform a bank stability analysis on east side of Cottage Row Drive.

Public works director Garnet Van Norman said there is a sheer drop off the east side of the road. Stantec, he said, will take soil borings in the area to determine if there is any threat to the roadbed.

“We don’t anticipate any problems, but if the soil borings indicate anything, we want to be able to go in and correct the problem before it can get worse,” he said.