Battlefield Restoration

PROJECT UPDATES - June 4, 2012

Contractors are now working on the Phase 3 area along Graveyard Road and Union Avenue in the northern section of the park. Truck and construction equipment traffic will travel through the USS Cairo parking lot, along Connecting Avenue and Confederate Avenue to Graveyard Road, then return to the USS Cairo along north Union Avenue. Please stay alert to this traffic and obey all posted signage, including temporary STOP signs placed at the intersection of Graveyard Road and Union Avenue, and at the intersection of Grant Avenue and Union Avenue.

Because of the safety issue concerns, the park asks visitors to stay out of all construction areas, and obey all posted signage. Additionally, please remain alert for periodic smoke/haze caused by burning of debris piles on the project sites.

Hikers - For those walking the primitive hiking trail, the following sections will be closed until work is finished in these areas:

1) Between Old Jackson Road and Pemberton Avenue which passes the Old Administration Building. Please re-route your hike along Union Avenue to Milepost 11.5 south of Pemberton Avenue.

2) Beginning at Milepost 8.5 near the intersection of Union and Grant Avenues and ending on Graveyard Road at Tour Stop 5 (Milepost 9.0). Please re-route your hike along Union Avenue to Graveyard Road.

 

Phase I Project Area Looking Toward Illinois Monument and Shirley House, April 2012

NPS Photo

 

Phase II Project Area Looking Toward Kentucky Monument, May 2012

NPS Photo

 

Restoration areas (orange)

Work has begun on Vicksburg National Military Park's battlefield restoration project, covering approximately 80-90 acres within the park boundaries.

Per the park's Cultural Landscape Plan and Environmental Assessment approved in 2009, restoration will involve removal of woodland cover and maintenance of the landscape in a more open and visually accessible state.

All work will occur on sites designated to be areas of key military engagements during the campaign for Vicksburg, allowing for enhanced interpretation of the 1863 siege. These key military engagement sites were identified through careful review of the military terrain that helped define the events of May 19 through July 4, 1863, and its ability to convey the full range of events and activities that occurred. The project areas include the earthworks and artillery positions associated with the city approaches of Old Jackson Road/Battery DeGolyer/Third Louisiana Redan, Railroad Redoubt/Fort Garrott, and Graveyard Road near its intersection with Union Avenue.

The goal is to remove the least woodland cover needed to reveal the most important historic landscape relationships. This will also provide for additional interpretive exhibits and devices to support visitor understanding of the events of 1863. The mitigation required for this rehabilitation project will include stringent erosion control measures, implementation of Best Management Practices (BMPs) during and after clearing, monitoring of wildlife, plants, water quality, and soundscape in order to detect any definitive changes, and continual landscape assessment to determine if modifications are needed for subsequent phases of the restoration process.