Following five fallow months due to the emergency rerouting of an unstable water line, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has resumed working on its $16 million interpretive center and museum at the MV Mississippi IV.

The first order of business is to make sure a concrete retaining wall just east of the massive vessel won’t be compromised again — as it was during a March 26 land shift at Washington and Jackson streets, bringing work to a halt.

“It’s just an extra precaution to be sure that this wall will not shift again,” said Kavanaugh Breazeale, Corps spokesman.

The entire wall is to be replaced with fresh concrete, which should be complete this week, said Breazeale. Then, construction of the interpretive center and museum will begin again.

“The estimated time now for completion of the museum is 12 to 14 months, barring any unforeseen problems,” Breazeale said.

Ground work on the Corps’ interpretive center began in November, and initially was expected to be complete next spring.

Now it’s opening likely will coincide with the opening of a transportation museum on the ground floor of the Levee Street Depot, about a block south of the MV Mississippi IV. Work on that project, which also will include second-floor office space for the Vicksburg Main Street Program and Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, is expected to begin around Oct. 1 and be completed in about a year.

With the MV Mississippi IV as the centerpiece, the museum will feature interactive exhibits on efforts to improve navigation and limit flooding on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Exhibits on life surrounding the lower Mississippi River also are planned, with a walkway and observation deck.

The center is two blocks north of the Art Park at Catfish Row and the Riverfront Murals.

The city’s main water pipe running beneath Washington Street from the water treatment plant north of downtown on Haining Road was relocated one block around the shift site via Main, Walnut and Jackson streets in early June.

The $1.36 million relocation was paid for by the Corps.