The city of Selma hopes to soon see results of a study that is examining erosion along the banks of the Alabama River and what can be done to stop it.

The city approved the study in July, and Mayor George Evans told council members during a Wednesday afternoon work session that he is hoping to have the results in hand sometime soon.

“They told me it is coming, but they did not set a date,” Evans said after the work session.

The company the city contracted to spearhead the study is Volkert, Inc., an engineering firm headquartered in Mobile.

“We appointed the company to get together information and bring together resources we need through companies and businesses to give us an idea of what it is going to take to fix the bank,” Evans said.

Evans said in July when the study was approved that it would cost the city an estimated $78,000 to have the problem researched.

Evans said Volkert was in charge of finding companies to look at the bank and determine solutions to stop them from eroding any further.

“The Corp of Engineers have been here and looked at the river on a boat,” Evans said. “But at this point I have not gotten a written report about their findings and what it is going to take to repair the bank.”

Evans said several other engineering firms have also examined the bank.

Evans said the study was mainly focused on the bank along Water Avenue from the Riverfront Amphitheater down to the Carneal ArtsRevive Building, which is where there is evidence of erosion.

“It is from the rain and all the water just washing away the banks of the river, almost all the way down the river,” Evans said.

Where the city goes from here will depend on the results of the study, Evans said. The results will tell them how bad the problem is, how it can be stopped and how much money it is going to take to fix it.

“The city council will have to appropriate certain funding to do certain things with the repair unless we can get a grant from somewhere to do it, and hopefully we can,” Evans said. “Right now it is just too early for me to give a conclusion one way or the other because I don’t know what they are going to tell us.”

Evans said there isn’t money in the city’s budget appropriated for what will be needed to repair the bank, but there is between $400,000 to $500,000 that could be used for the project.

“Right now we’re just going to see what comes in, the urgency of what comes in and make a decision of what we’re going to do first,” Evans said.

Ray Hogg, the city’s engineering consultant, said in July that the problem is something that didn’t happen over night. Hogg said the erosion has probably been taking place for hundreds of years.