The Vicksburg Post
Vicksburg National Military Park Grant Circle, North Union Avenue access restored after six years
The more than $7 million project repaired storm damage and reconnects the full military park tour route.
Vicksburg National Military Park Superintendent Treacy Stone, left, U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and retired Brig. Gen. Robert Crear cut the ribbon Friday following repairs to Grant Circle and North Union Avenue, closed after storm damage in 2020. DON HILL | THE VICKSBURG POST
Don Hill, The Vicksburg Post
Six years after heavy rains caused catastrophic damage to portions of the tour road at the Vicksburg National Military Park, officials gathered Friday to mark the completion of a $7.43 million project that restored access to Grant Circle and North Union Avenue.
The repairs did far more than replace pavement. Beneath North Union Avenue, crews installed 900 aggregate piers to reinforce the roadway, improve load transfer and reduce the risk of the lateral soil movement that contributed to the 2020 failure.
At Grant Circle, crews constructed a 50-foot gabion basket retaining wall designed to stabilize the road slope while allowing water to pass through the structure, reducing the risk of drainage failures.
“We're confident that this is not going anywhere,” Park Superintendent Treacy Stone said.
Heavy rainfall in early 2020 saturated the park's loess soil, causing a large landslide that buckled portions of the road and forced the National Park Service to close Grant Circle and a long stretch of North Union Avenue. Several monuments were also relocated to protect them from further damage.
Stone said those monuments will be returned to their original locations in the coming months by specialists from the National Park Service's Historic Preservation Training Center.
The solution used at Grant Circle also has a connection to the battlefield's history. During the siege of Vicksburg, Union and Confederate forces used gabion baskets woven from cane reeds and filled with earth and stone to strengthen trenches and fortifications, according to the National Park Service. The modern retaining wall uses different materials but relies on the same basic principle.
The project used a design-build approach, allowing engineers and contractors to develop portions of the solution as they encountered subsurface conditions rather than completing the entire design before construction began.
The completed work restores the park's full tour route after years of closures.
“I'm pleased that we can all once again enjoy the entire tour route after years of closure,” Stone said.
U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who toured the damaged areas in 2020 and pressed federal officials to address the damage, joined Stone, retired Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, president of the Friends of Vicksburg National Military Park and Campaign board of directors, and other project partners for Friday's event.
The $7.43 million project was funded through a 50/50 combination of Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads funding and disaster supplemental funding.
Hyde-Smith acknowledged Friday that reaching completion took time.
“The government may work slow,” Hyde-Smith said. “But we got the money. It was used properly. It was spent properly, and we got the results that we anticipated.”
Hyde-Smith credited her position on the Senate Appropriations Committee with giving her an opportunity to support the effort and make the case in Washington for the park's significance.
Crear called the project “a triumph of engineering” and “a victory of historic preservation.”
“Today, we are doing much more than reopening asphalt,” Crear said. “We're restoring access to the hallowed ground where the fate of our nation was forged.”
With Grant Circle and North Union Avenue restored, Stone said work to address other vulnerable areas throughout the battlefield continues.
A smaller repair is underway at Sherman Circle, where another section of hillside failed. Stone said the park has identified at least three or four other concentrated areas where drainage structures have begun to fail and crews hope to make repairs before the surrounding hillsides are lost.
“We want to get in there, dig it back and engineer it properly,” Stone said, adding that some of the techniques used at Grant Circle and North Union Avenue could be applied to those projects.
The park is also planning work on several historic bridges that Stone said do not meet some current roadway standards, including requirements involving bridge rails.
Beyond the remaining road and bridge work, another major project is on the horizon at the military park — a new visitor center.
“That will be better than Gettysburg,” Hyde-Smith said. “I mean, it will be literally the best in the nation. This is one of the most significant things that we're working on now, to look forward to the day that we cut the ribbon, and we can touch it and feel it and we can see it, and just the pride that it brings to the entire state.”