Repairs could begin soon on four slide areas in the city caused by heavy rainstorms in 2020.

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday authorized City Clerk Walter Osborne to advertise for bids to repair slide areas at Second North Street, Polk Street, Halls Ferry Road and Columbia Avenue. The projects are funded through a $560,571.65 Natural Resources Conservation Service grant, with NRCS contributing $430,206.15 and the city providing a $130,365.50 match.

The board in April approved a contract not to exceed $84,488 with Stantec to engineer and design repairs to four severe erosion problems caused by heavy rains in 2020.

Under the contract, Stantec is responsible for designing remedies to problems caused by erosion on Second North Street; an erosion and slide area along a drainage ditch behind homes along Columbia Avenue; a washout area at Halls Ferry Road and Lane Street; and erosion on Polk Street near a house.

The four sites are among six slide repair projects funded by NRCS. The city on Nov. 10 received a $267,300 Natural Resources Conservation Service grant for projects to repair sides on Farmer Street and Clover Lane. The money is expected to cover about 80 percent of the projects’ total $348,300 cost, with the city providing the balance of $81,000.

The NRCS-funded sites are part of a group of 13 areas in Vicksburg that were affected when strong rains hit the area in January and April 2020.

Other areas include Riverfront Park, James E. Sturgis Sr. Street, Crestline Lane (street), Greenhill, a culvert on Crestline Lane, a culvert near the intersection of Iowa Boulevard and U.S. 61 South near McDonald’s and the City Park project to replace a damaged walking trail and replace fencing. The areas will be repaired using emergency funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

When FEMA did not approve Clover Lane and Farmer Street for emergency funds, city officials applied for the NRCS money.

The board in February approved taking a $4 million short-term loan to begin repairs at some of the slide areas while waiting on the federal money. The loan will be repaid with federal funds.