The Selma City Council voted last Tuesday to award a bid to repair collapsing infrastructure on Lauderdale Street that caused the street to cave in five places in the last year.

According to Council President Corey Bowie, the bid was awarded to REV Construction out of Tuscaloosa.

The bid process was opened Friday, Aug. 13, and four companies took out bid documents to look at making a proposal for the project.

“We had four contractors that took out what I call bid documents. They have to come get them from us and register to be able to bid,” said engineering consultant Ray Hogg said at the last council work session. “Only two [companies] bid.”

The bids came from REV Construction and Tri-County Construction, which is based in Selma.

“REV Construction of Tuscaloosa was the low bidder at $215,045. Tri-County Construction was the second low bidder here in Selma at $219,085,” Hogg said. “John Woods Construction of Selma and Smitherman Brothers Construction of Selma did not submit a bid.”

According to Hogg, the owners of REV Construction are familiar with Selma due to previous work.

“I’m not familiar with the company themselves, but I am with two of the principal owners [of REV],” Hogg said. “They are dually licensed, and the two guys that own it have done previous work back in the 90s in Selma with a different company.”

According to Hogg, the project will start at the Bienville Monument and run to an alley that is across from the Dallas County Courthouse.

The problem started over a year ago when part of the road collapsed in front of the courthouse and the Bienville Monument started to sink.

The city repaired the monument and the pipe at the courthouse, but the problem continued in May when part of Water Avenue fell in in front of the monument. The problem got worse in June when an even bigger hole formed next to Selma One Hour Cleaners at the corner of Lauderdale Street and Water Avenue.

When the hole formed, Hogg estimated it to be 10 feet wide and 20 feet long. Hogg said a 100-year-old pipe that collapsed caused the holes.

“It’s part of the same pipe system that we’ve already repaired last year,” Hogg said in June. “The pipe is just not in very good shape. I can’t say it any other way. It’s just brittle.”

Hogg said the pipe is made of clay and part of it has already been repaired in front of the courthouse last fall. Hogg said the plan is to replace the old pipe with a new one and rebuild the street.

“Once we looked at it through a camera … you could tell that there is more than one spot that is probably eventually going to do the same thing if we don’t fix that problem,” Hogg said. “If you look up that pipe there are a lot of bad places.”

According to Bowie, the city will fund the construction through it’s half-cent sales tax.