After a century of instability, erosion of Hickman Bluff forced the closing of Magnolia Street and came to threaten several public structures, including the town's water supply. When initial stabilization efforts failed, city officials sought federal intervention, and U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell drafted legislation directing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assess the problem and carry out a solution while also securing more than $17 million in federal funding. The City of Hickman served as the local sponsor and provided rights-of-way for the work. The resulting stabilization project used innovative soil-nailing and shotcrete facing technology: epoxy-coated 45-foot reinforcing bars were grouted into place as soil nails to anchor the shotcrete facing to the bluff, while surface and subsurface drainage systems reduced instability caused by surface and ground water movement. The work also included 26 deep anchors 233 feet long and a shotcrete reaction beam to support the reconstructed corner of the bluff above, which was rebuilt using lightweight aggregate fill reinforced with geogrid and faced with limestone riprap.