Vicksburg will be busting with construction work this summer as the city repaves streets, overhauls City Park and replace aging, failing infrastructure, North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield told members of Vicksburg Lions Club during a lunch meeting Wednesday.

The city is waiting on final approval from the state to begin the first phase of a capital improvement project.

“We’re currently in the process of floating an $18 million bond,” Mayfield said. “That bond is about paving throughout the city of Vicksburg and when I say throughout, I mean from all the way from the extreme north to the extreme south.”

A breakdown of proposed project spending includes $4.6 million for street paving to be done in two phases in the North and South wards. In March the city approved contracts with AJA Management and Technical Services of Jackson for the South Ward and Stantec in the North Ward.

“We’ve been asked on several occasions why we do that. There is no way you can put (that much money) in paving and infrastructure and be timely with one engineer,” Mayfield said. “If you drive around, you’ll find we have base failures all over the city because of failing infrastructure.”

The biggest piece of aging infrastructure being addressed is the city’s secondary water line on Fort Hill Drive. The line will go down the middle of the street, creating traffic problems, Mayfield said. But after a grim prediction by engineers the line must be replaced, he said.

“They told me that if the line had failed, it is a possibility that we would not have one single drop of water in Warren County for three weeks,” Mayfield said.

In January, the board approved a $143,500 contract with Applied Research Associates Inc. of Champaign, Ill., to do a street survey, which will be used to develop a priority list for street paving in the future. Mayfield said the survey found the “worst of the worst.”

“Old Vicksburg has utilities that some of them are over 100 years old. After a while, if you take a sewer line or a water line and you have it leak, you start having problems with what’s on top of it,” Mayfield said.

The bond money will also include $1.5 million for parking lot improvements at Riverfront Park, Halls Ferry Park and Basinzky Park. Part of those funds are also set aside for roadwork in Cedar Hill Cemetery.

The city has earmarked $350,000 for work at City Park Pavilion, which will be demolished and rebuilt.

“We have some great things planned throughout,” Mayfield said.