Rain Pushes Back Final Phase of SR51 Sinkhole/Road Repair

With more rain expected this week, Georgia DOT are not expecting to finish the sinkhole repair project on SR51/Reed Creek Highway in Hart County by next week as planned.

Georgia DOT crews had hoped to continue building back the road last week, but rain showers the week before saturated the fill dirt and according to spokesperson Teri Pope, that dirt never did completely dry before more rain fell Friday.

“The weather has not cooperated at all,” she said. “The rain saturated the fill dirt and it still hadn’t dried out from rain earlier last week.  The fill dirt and the stockpile dirt are both saturated so they can’t add those two together.”

Pope said crews will be back at the site today to determine whether work can resume to build up the road.

“When the rain saturates the fill dirt, it’s extremely difficult to figure out how long it will take to dry,” she said. “The engineers will be out there today to check the site and see if any part of it has dried.”

However, the bottom line as of today is that the October 13th completion date has been pushed back.

“Overall, the rain has extremely slowed the work,” she said. “We’ve lost a full week so far, and we do not expect to make the October 13 completion date.  We’re not sure how much longer the project will take. That will depend on the weather.”

The sinkhole opened up on State Route 51 on May 6 after a giant metal culvert pipe, some 40 feet below the road surface deteriorated and collapsed.

Once the asphalt was removed, Georgia DOT Engineers found a cavity 10 feet square at the top and 20 feet deep taking up almost the entire northbound lane.  The new culvert pipe was installed last month.