A report on the condition of the 18-year-old retaining wall at the Vicksburg Convention Center on Mulberry Street is forcing city officials to hire a geotechnical firm to determine if it will have to be repaired or replaced.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Tuesday approved a $6,240 contract with Burns Cooley Dennis Inc., a Jackson-based geotechnical consulting firm, to examine the wall and determine if any work needs to be done on the aging wall.

Public Works Director Garnet Van Norman said the wall was built when construction began on the convention center in 1996. It opened in 1997.

“The convention center was built on a slope that ran down from Mulberry Street,” he said. “They cut into the slope to build the center, and built the retaining wall to keep the slope and Mulberry Street from soughing off into the convention center.”

He said the wall has 10 inclinometers, which are used to indicate any shift in the soil around the center, that are checked annually by Kenner-based Gillen Engineering.

Van Norman added Burns Cooley Dennis was hired because the engineer who designed the wall now works for the company.

According to a letter from the consultants to City Attorney Nancy Thomas, a report filed by Gillen after an inspection of the wall indicated “corroded steel elements and rotting wood lagging and possible potential loss of passive support behind the wall from siltation and piping of soils through the wall.”

No date was given when the inspection would be done.