NATCHEZ — Just one day in the month of September is labeled as Labor Day, but for the city engineering department, it’s going to be the whole month.

Engineer department employees — all five of them — are working diligently to prepare paperwork for several major projects to be bid out at the end of September, City Engineer David Gardner said.

We’re real busy right now — probably as we’ve ever been,” he said. “We’re just like worker bees.”

Of the 56 projects the department is tackling right now, five top the priority list.

One project is already under way — a retaining wall of North Commerce Street across from Bienville Apartments.

“We had some sloughing similar, but on a smaller scale, from what was happening at the bluffs,” Gardner said.

Using Emergency Watershed Program funds from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the engineering department is halfway through building the wall.

The city was approved up to $80,000 for the project, but bids came in low and the project is only costing $72,000.

The finishing touch on the project is to add a stucco concrete finish, as per the request of the Natchez Preservation Commission.

Surveying is slated to begin soon for five more NRCS retaining wall projects, and the sites are on North Street, North Bluebird Drive, Martin Luther King Jr. Street and two on Oak Hill Drive.

“We are getting to do the surveying, and as soon as that’s done we’ll design it just like we did the retaining wall on Commerce Street,” Gardner said.

Funding approval hasn’t been given by NRCS right now, and the department has between 180 and 220 days to survey, design and begin construction on the sites.

“The clock is ticking right now,” Gardner said.

And time is even tighter with three other major projects on the horizon.

“We’ve got these other projects that are more pressing … that we’re having to drop those NRCS projects to tend to the more pressing ones,” he said.

The Union Street overlay, from Orleans Street to George F. West Boulevard, will have its bids let toward the end of September, or the beginning of August.

Paperwork is currently being pushed to have the funds obligated by the Federal Highway Administration by the Sept. 30 deadline.

The $2.1 million Natchez Trails Project also needs its funds obligated by the Federal Highway Administration by Sept. 30, and engineering department employees are currently working on that paperwork.

Gardner said he also wants bids to be let for the $2.5 million North Natchez Drainage Project and the $662,000 overlay of downtown business district streets using stimulus funds in September.

Overall, Gardner said $6.5 million worth of construction will essentially be taking place simultaneously in the area.

And he said there’s no use in trying to spread it out, the fall weather needs to be taken advantage of.

“I wish we could spread it around a little bit,” he said. “You always try to get the project out in early summer to take advantage of construction weather, but because of delays and approvals, it’s always in the fall.

“It drives me bananas.”

With the same contractor, crews could jump from project to project, but it would lengthen the time to complete all projects.

With different contractors, Gardner said it would be difficult for the city to manage each project.

“It really doesn’t matter to us one way or the other,” Gardner said.

The city doesn’t have to worry about letting bids on at least one project, which is the stimulus overlay.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation will be taking care of that for the city, as specified through the American Recovery and Investment Act.