NATCHEZ — The City of Natchez hopes to enlist the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reconnect Silver Street to Roth Hill Road along the riverfront.

Mayor Butch Brown presented a request to restore approximately 300 feet of city-owned Water Street to the Mississippi River Commission Thursday at its meeting aboard the Motor Vessel Mississippi, which was docked at Natchez Under-the-Hill.

The task would involve completing a bank stabilization project that the Corps started in 1996, Brown told the commission.

Three of the five areas originally approved for the project were funded, City Engineer David Gardner told the commission.

“Two were not appropriated,” he said. “They were to be appropriated at a later day; we just haven’t pursued that yet.”

The Corps was able to replace 11 of the 22 acres Under-the-Hill that washed away following the rerouting of the Mississippi River that occurred after the Giles cut was made in 1933, Brown said.

The Giles cut, Brown said, shortened the course of the river by 14 miles but also caused a stronger, more forceful flow of water at the Natchez riverfront that resulted in major erosion.

Completing the rest of the project, Brown said, would rebuild the part of Water Street that washed away and allow the city to utilize the street for emergency vehicle access to new development on Roth Hill Road.

Magnolia Bluffs Casino opened in December on Roth Hill Road, and residents and officials previously have raised concerns about emergency vehicle access to the site.

Commissioner Norma Jean Mattei asked if the city had any estimates of what it would cost to reclaim the rest of Water Street.

Gardner said previous estimates completed more than a decade ago suggested a cost of $7 to $8 million each for the two remaining “reaches,” or areas, of the project.

Gardner and Brown both said the cost could be reduced by using more recent design methods.

Brown also thanked the commission for the Corps’ work on the bluff stabilization project that was completed in the 1990s.

Commissioner R.D. James asked Brown how the bluff stabilization was holding up, and Brown said it was doing “remarkably well.”

Brown also told the commission he was on board with their efforts to find more funding to repair and replace outdated locks and dams along the river.

Maj. Gen. John W. Peabody thanked Brown for joining the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative. Brown and other mayors of cities that share the banks of the Mississippi are members of the initiative, a mayoral-led effort to create a coordinated voice for the Mississippi River that began last year.

The mayors and members of Congress announced the formation of the Mississippi River Bicameral Caucus in Washington, D.C., last month. The caucus’s platform is to improve the Mississippi River and its infrastructure.

Peabody said the nation’s infrastructure recently received a D+ grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers. The highest grade for dams was a C, he said, and inland waterways received a D- mark.

Peabody pointed to the age of infrastructure as one of the key problems.

“We cannot sit on our laurels and take the levee system we have for granted,” Peabody said.

Nature happens, Peabody said, and the 2011 Mississippi River flood is evidence that preparation is vital for another event of that magnitude or greater.

“We must imagine that; we must prepare for that,” he said.

The commission also heard presentations from representatives of Claiborne County, the Red River Valley Association, Lower Mississippi River Resource Assessment, Ouachita River Valley Association and other organizations.

Thursday’s meeting was the third on the commission’s annual high-water inspection trip.

The goal of the trip is for the public to share its thoughts and ideas with the MRC — which studies and makes policy and work recommendations for flood control and navigation projects along the river — and the Corps of Engineers.