Job cuts at nationwide engineering and architectural services firm HNTB have had a ripple effect in Vicksburg involving the old U.S. 80 bridge.

The company’s Kansas City offices made references to the economy in a statement Monday confirming a 6 percent staffing reduction.

“The firm is not releasing numbers of employees either firm-wide or for individual offices. Approximately 6 percent of employees nationwide were affected,” spokesman Sara J. Prem said.

According to commissioners appointed to manage the Mississippi River bridge owned by Warren County, they learned in February that cuts included the company’s Baton Rouge-based senior technical adviser for structures, Rudy McClellan, with whom the local panel had worked for years on the structure’s annual stability report and other matters.

Superintendent Herman Smith said officials have been assigned a new contact with the company with whom to work on the 2008 report as it is revised to reflect recent work — the absence of which caused the commission once again to put off its seal of approval. The bridge, which spans 1.6-miles, was designed by HNTB and the firm has been its engineer since it opened in 1930.

“We’re not trying to influence the engineering,” Chairman Robert Moss said. “It just needs a little more info.”

Despite an overall “good to fair” rating on the structure, the commission has taken issue with poorer ratings on connecting joints on the superstructure. Also, bridge officials have said, the report drafted in January does not account for completed work on the unused road deck on the west approach.

Inspectors have recorded 9.94 inches of westerly movement since 1997, with .69 of an inch in 2008. Bearings and concrete atop the pier have been replaced twice since then, with a third project in progress since November. Commissioners said Monday a slight increase in that project’s $627,670 cost is expected, due to extra alignment work.

Rail traffic reported by Kansas City Southern increased slightly for February, the second month of more traffic since a 10-year low in December.

The railroad said 21,855 cars crossed the Mississippi at Vicksburg for the month, up from 20,832 a month ago. In the inspection report, trains per day totaled 13, down from 19 in 2007.

Since buying the old bridge from private owners after World War II, supervisors have operated the crossing as a not-for-profit business. The roadway was closed to traffic 11 years ago and KCS tolls pay most of the cost of maintenance and repairs. Vehicles use the Interstate 20 bridge, immediately south. 

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com.