By Bonnie Culverhouse
Providing all bidder requirements are met, rehabilitation will begin soon – possibly May – on a portion of Industrial Drive in Minden.
During a special meeting of the Minden City Council Monday, RVP Construction was accepted as the lowest bidder with a base bid of $1,213,777 over three other qualified bidders. The engineer’s estimate on the project was $1,309,678.
RVP, a Marshall, Texas-based company was the only one of the four that came in under the estimate. They were awarded the bid by a unanimous council vote.
“This is from Industrial Drive down to the last Love’s Travel Stop drive,” Mayor Nick Cox said. “In my opinion, this is a really good bid. The engineering company (Waggoner) has worked with them before.”
Council members also voted to advertise for bids for the 2025-026 Street Improvements Project which includes:
• Sheppard Street from Shreveport Road to East Union Street
• Joel Street
• Martin Luther King Drive
• Winford Street
• Clerk Street from Howell to Pine streets
• Country Club Circle from Drake Drive to Germantown Road
• Drake Drive (apron area)
Cox was given the council’s authority to enter into a short form of agreement between the City and Waggoner Engineering Inc., headquartered in Jackson, Miss., for professional services that include preliminary designs for the street projects and Industrial Drive.
“There is a chance we may not be able to do them all (street projects),” Cox told council members who submitted their street work requests before the vote. “We may have to shorten some things or cut a road and try to do it next year, or come up with some other way to get them done.
“In my opinion, this is a very good list and a way to move our city forward,” he added.
The latest estimated cost to repair the list is around $1.6 million.
Cost includes around $420,000 to mill and overlay Sheppard Street, repairing any base problems encountered.
“We’ve taken core samples of Sheppard, and it’s pretty good underneath it,” Public Works Director Tyler Wallace said. “We just want to beef it up a little bit more.”
One issue with the stretch of Sheppard Street includes natural springs that run underground. Cox said the City recently reworked one of the main drainage culverts under Sheppard Street.
“The springs keep it saturated,” Cox said. “As long as we stay on top of it with DOTD, and make sure their drainage isn’t pouring out down there, it’ll hold up a lot better. DOTD worked it heavy in 2023 where it comes down Depot Hill and floods down.”
While on the discussion of roads, Cox told the council he believes Homer Road will be rehabilitated in 2027. Grant funds cover the state-owned highway from Webster Parish Library to the Claiborne Parish line.