NATCHEZ — The city plans to open the area of Silver Street in front of the Isle of Capri by this afternoon, City Engineer David Gardner said.

If for some reason the opening is delayed, he said, the street will be opened Friday morning.

The Isle of Capri casino has not yet set a date to reopen, despite reports at Tuesday’s Natchez Board of Aldermen meeting that it had.

Jill Alexander, senior director of corporate communications for Isle of Capri Casinos Inc., said cleaning up the street is an hour-to-hour process.

“We’re making a lot of progress with the clean up,” she said. “I believe (the city) just about got all of the silt cleared (Wednesday).”

However, clearing the street isn’t the last of the work.

“There’s a lot of surveillance and technical work that has to be done,” Alexander said. “We don’t disclose all of that for security and safety reasons.”

Gardner said there are also a couple of other obstacles that stand in the way of the casino reopening.

“The Corps of Engineers is scheduled to put rock in on the riverfront,” he said. “We’ve been hauling out sand left over from the Hesco (Bastion instant levees), and I’d like to go ahead and get (the rocks placed) soon, too.”

Rocks were piled across from the boat Wednesday.

Isle of Capri employees met Tuesday for an informational meeting, and Alexander said everyone is excited to get back to work.

“The bottom line is, there are a lot of details that go into opening a casino,” she said. “We’re working through (the details) and making progress every day, and just as soon as we have official word from the Gaming Commission, we’ll let everybody know when we’ll reopen.

“It’s a fluid situation, it’s not like opening a store where you just turn a key.”

The casino plans to reopen near 47 or 48 feet. The river stood at 52.25 feet Wednesday.