Huntsville officials are concerned about “failing” seawalls along the lake in Big Spring Park and are looking to investigate the cause.

The city council on Thursday will consider a $44,000 contract with Barge Design Solutions to assess the problem and develop solutions.

Related: Big Spring Park is open again: ‘Living room of our city,’ Mayor Tommy Battle says

The seawall was redone as part of the $2 million refurbishment of the park during the winter of 2016-2017. The general project description, according to the contract between the city and Barge Solutions, calls for “engineering services for the evaluation and recommendation of improvements of failing retaining wall segments located around the lake in Big Spring Park.”

The lake is the central part of the downtown park that’s long been a point of pride for Huntsville.

Ricky Wilkinson, director of the city’s general services department, said the seawall issues are not widespread. The problem areas have been on the north and west sides of the lake. Indicators of the problem, Wilkinson said, is that the sidewalk around the lake has started to settle into the ground deeper than was designed.

“If you walk around Big Spring Park, we’ve got some areas, we’re having some settling and just trying to get our finger on what the what the pulse is of what’s actually occurring at those locations,” Wilkinson said Thursday. “It’s interesting, it’s not happening everywhere necessarily but we’ve got some issues at specific locations that appear to be more significant than anything else that we’re seeing around the pond down there.”

One cause for the problem, Wilkinson said, is a faster current in the lake from when it was restructured and narrowed in places to enhance water flow and avoid buildup of silt.

“What we’re curious about is whether or not water is somehow migrating behind that redi rock retaining wall and possibly moving some of the smaller gravel out from behind the wall. And that may be what’s causing that to occur.”

Wilkinson said a source of encouragement with the seawall issues is that when the city recently rebuilt parts of the Monroe Street parking garage on the park’s northern side, there were no groundwater issues in drilling caisson anchors.

The contract scope is to be completed by Feb. 28.

This story will be updated.