Road Closures, Repairs Continue in Hart County and Royston
Damaged and washed out roads continue to be a problem in some parts of Hart and Franklin Counties.
In Hart County, the Road Department said this morning several roads are still closed due to flooding or damage from all the recent heavy rainfall. Those roads include:
Bond Kelley Road – which is still closed for repairs because of damage from the rain
Watershed Road – Closed due to flooding over the roadway
Old Highway 29 – Near Long Point Recreation area – Water from Hartwell Lake is washing over the pavement. Motorists are advised to use Brown Circle to avoid standing water on Old Highway 29.
Meantime, the City of Royston is crediting its disaster readiness plan with preventing what one city official says could have been a major disaster last week when rain caused a road to collapse near a gas main.
City manager Greg Scott said early on the morning of July 9th police noticed Hartwell St., U.S.29, and Hub St. were underwater.
“As a result of that, around 3a there was a call from a gentleman who said he had no water,” Scott said. “A check of the area found a six-inch water pipe had ruptured on Baker St. because of all the rain. The water had washed out the entire underpinning of that road and so it had no base.”
On Monday, Scott said crews continue to work on rebuilding that road and checking for more potential problems throughout the town. He said his main concern on Baker St. was the possibility of a gas line rupturing under the street very near the water line.
“We have been working steadily and safely and we’ve gotten it to the point where we’re very confident that there won’t be any danger of a gas main break, which was causing me a lot of concern,” he said.
Scott said it was because city employees followed all proper procedures when they discovered the problem that averted what he said could have been a major disaster.
“Due to the exhaustive efforts of several different people in our departments that a disaster did not happen,” he said. “They did things the right way. We want to make sure than any of these kinds of disasters don’t turn to tragedy. That’s our main goal.”
Scott said crews have secured the banks of the Baker St. hole to keep the road from collapsing again and have begun replacing the pipes. However, he said it will be some weeks before the road is re-opened to traffic.