Sinkhole Brings New County Water Line to Area

The sinkhole on SR51/Reed Creek Highway in Hart County is actually turning out to be a good thing for people living in the area.

The Hart County Water and Sewer Authority is now installing a new water line around the detour area giving  home owners and poultry farmers the opportunity to tap on to county water.

Water and Sewer Authority Director Pat Goran said since the board had already planned to eventually lay water lines in that area, they saw the sinkhole repair work as a good opportunity to speed up the plan.

Goran said the board met last month with officials from the Georgia Department of Transportation and presented them with three options.

“One option was to put in 12″ plastic tubing and just kind of run it down along the banks toward the lake and come up on the other side of the sinkhole, cap the line on each side and make a little bypass right there,” he said. “The other option was to do some directional drilling under the culvert pipe and come out on the other side that way.”

A third option, Goran said, was to just lay in permanent water lines along the detour route.

“Everybody assumed we would be the only utility that would be affected, but Comcast and the telephone company had overhead lines there too,” Goran said. “That gave us time to go back to G-DOT and say we would really like to do this permanent line to our system.”

Goran said the new water line will run the length of the current sinkhole detour.

“It goes across Boat Road and a short section of Mt. Hebron Road, and then it goes down Parham Road and comes out on Reed Creek Highway, plus we’re putting in about a 1,500 ft length of water line back down Reek Creek Highway to connect with our system at the intersection of New Prospect Road and Reed Creek Highway,” he said.”

Goran said G-DOT is funding $225,000 of the just over $300,000 project.

Letters have gone out this week to potential customers who are being offered a discount on their tap fee.

Goran said he is not sure how many customers will be tap on to the new water line, which should be done by the 4th of July.