Nearly a year after the $117,000 grant to improve Rawls Subdivision was awarded, town officials recently voted to award the work contract to the Andalusia-based R&B Construction Co. Inc.

Town Clerk Christy Cartwright said the company submitted the lowest bid of $72,513, and work will begin in the coming days.

The project, which was announced in October and is being funded by a Community Development Block Grant, will improve water service to an estimated 50 homes. It will require a $13,000 match from the town.

The project will begin at County Road 82 and will go through Rawls subdivision, which is located off the Gantt/Red Level Road.

Water distribution will be improved by replacing 3-inch pipes with 6-inch pipes. The lines will then be relocated because existing lines are buried just below the street surface and are continually damaged by vehicles.

Four fire hydrants also will be installed. The existing water lines are too small to support the water-flow requirements of fire hydrants.

Cartwright said obtaining this grant is the first step in ultimately securing funding to pave the subdivision’s streets – and great news to the subdivision’s residents.

“For years, we’ve had complaints about the roads in that area,” she said. “When first started looking at paving, we asked what we needed to do. We found out that there are a lot of water lines in the center of the road and others that needed repair. So we were told to fix that first.”

Cartwright said work will begin as soon as the company can “line up” its bond and insurance paperwork. It will be completed in 60 days, she said.

“As soon as it’s finished, we’re going after another grant to get the roads paved,” she said. “That will make a lot of residents in Gantt very happy.”

Funding for the grant was made available to the state through a program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) is administering the grant.

Cartwright said town officials hope to use the remaining grant funds to start repaving the area’s streets.