More sinkholes reported in Selma
Published 1:11 am Friday, December 18, 2009
Heavy rains and shifts beneath the pavement along with heavy traffic on the streets have resulted in a couple of more sinkholes on city streets.
Tuesday night, parts of J.L. Chestnut Boulevard were blocked off after the pavement caved in.
Those sites were J.L. Chestnut Boulevard at Franklin Street and J.L. Chestnut Boulevard at Washington Street.
J.L. Chestnut Boulevard is under reconstruction. The city received a grant to resurface the thoroughfare.
“We would ask people to travel very carefully down these streets until we have them repaired,” said Mayor George Evans.
Evans said he had talked to workers in the city’s Public Works Department about the sinkholes, ensuring those places in the streets were properly marked and barricaded, so a motorist would not have an accident.
Several weeks ago, a sinkhole formed in Broad Street near Small Avenue.
Earlier this week, the Selma City Council voted to approve emergency repairs for the sinkhole.
The state said it was not responsible for the sinkhole on Broad because the ground underneath gave way. Broad Street is a federal highway and under the maintenance schedule of the Alabama State Transportation Department.
Estimates for repairs on Broad ranged around $45,000. Some of that money will come from unappropriated funds in the city’s treasury. The rest will come from oil and gas money taken in by the city.
Nobody with the city had an estimate for repairs to the other sites.