Fort Hill Drive residents will be able to follow the construction progress of the city’s auxiliary waterline and have a telephone number and an onsite city representative to report problems once the construction project reaches their neighborhood.

Mayor George Flaggs Jr. told the residents at a Thursday meeting on the project a map showing the progress of the line’s installation will be on the city’s website once the project gets underway. The city is expected to open bids for the project July 10, putting the project’s starting date in August. Once construction begins, the contractor will have 223 calendar days to complete it.

Flaggs and North Ward Aldermen Michael Mayfield said the city’s special “hotline” would allow residents to report problems. Flaggs said the city’s onsite representative would be an engineer, adding, “He will be assigned to you and to your area. He will be responsible to you. We’re just paying him.”

The secondary line’s route will take it from the city water treatment plant on Haining Road, across North Washington Street, through the Vicksburg National Military Park, and down Fort Hill Drive to Cherry Street, where it will connect with an existing line on Jackson Street.

Project plans call for the 30-inch line to be laid down the center of Fort Hill Drive, said Vivek Jain of IMS Engineers, the project engineer. “There will be areas where we may have to shift the line along the way to avoid utilities in the area,” he said.

“I think it was only fair that the folks who are affected by this know what’s going on,” Flaggs told the 16 residents attending the meeting. “We want to make sure any questions you have get answered. We want you to ask questions so we can get you the right answers. If we don’t know the answer, we will get it for you.”

One question officials could not answer was when the project would reach Fort Hill, saying potential problems like weather may slow the project’s progress.

Meeting the residents was proposed by Flaggs and Mayfield during early discussions on the estimated $4.2 million waterline project, which is paid in part by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 592 grant that covers about 75 percent of the cost with the city paying the remaining 25 percent. The exact costs will depend on the selected bid for the project.

Besides wanting to know when the project would reach their neighborhood, the residents’ main concerns centered on traffic control and alternate routes out of the neighborhood, which borders with the Vicksburg National Military Park, potential for erosion from the work, and where the contractor would park equipment.

The traffic concern was based in part because Fort Hill is a narrow, two-lane street built by the National Park Service that was transferred to Warren County in the 1930s. The city has recently taken over maintenance of the street.

Jain said the waterline would be laid along the street in sections, adding the holes in the street would be covered by a steel plate when the work is done for the day. IMS engineer Keble Ward said the contractor will refill the excavations each evening “to a certain point so they can easily remove the soil when they resume work the next day.”

Mayfield said work on the street to lay the line would go from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., “So you’re only going to be inconvenienced from 8 to 5.”

He added the city has been working with Vicksburg National Military Park officials to develop an alternate route for residents once the work begins, possibly using a gravel service road by the Cairo exhibit that connects the park to North Washington Street.

City and IMS officials said crews would remove their equipment in the evenings to a site away from the work.

He and City Attorney Nancy Thomas said the contractor would be responsible for installing signs in the area, adding, “You know the park folks will also have signs up.”

Fort Hill resident Courtney Tuminello, whose house is on the west side of the street said she was concerned about the threat from erosion that may be caused by the work. The homes on the west side of Fort Hill sit atop a plateau.

Tuminello said her concerns were based in part because of loess soil in the area that is common in Vicksburg. The soil is composed of sand and plant material that rainwater cannot penetrate. She said a water leak several years ago threatened her property because it cut under the soil.

“When you remove that soil and replace it, it’s not going to pack well,” she said. “How can you be sure you won’t cause a slide?”

The IMS engineers said the location where the pipes will be installed and the way the holes would be backfilled would prevent that problem.

Plans for the auxiliary waterline project began in 2010 after a sudden shift in the soil on Washington Street during construction of the Corps’ Lower Mississippi River Museum and Interpretive Center threatened the city’s main 36-inch water line. The line was later relocated.

On November 2010, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen hired IMS to perform the engineering for the project. There had been little action by city officials on the project after IMS’ hiring until November 2013, when Flaggs called a meeting of IMS representatives, city officials, and Corps and National Military Park officials.

Since then, city and park officials and IMS representatives have addressed several issues, including resolving a wetlands problem where the line enters the park through a drainage area for Mint Springs.

In April 2014, city and county officials approved an interlocal agreement that allowed the city take over the maintenance and repair of Fort Hill Drive, clearing the way to run the line south along Fort Hill to connect with the line on Jackson Street.

The agreement was necessary because the street was a county road that was deeded to the county by the National Park Service in 1936.

The city still has to get a permit to cross the Vicksburg National Military Park.

The board in June 2014 acquired a six-month permit to cross the park in anticipation of the project starting last summer, but delays, including redesigning the point where the line crosses into the park to avoid a wetlands area, caused the permit to expire Dec. 31.

Park officials recommended the city reapply after the contract is awarded for the project, adding they foresaw no problem getting approval.