Sinkhole Closes Kelly Road in Hart County

Hart County Administrator Jon Caime has ordered Kelly Road closed due to a sinkhole.

Caime said heavy rains have knocked a culvert pipe under the road at the creek crossing loose causing that section of Kelly Road to sink.

He was out (early Friday) with road crews this morning to inspect the damage. Caime said it’s not clear yet how extensive the damage under the road is.

“I don’t expect it’s going to be anything on the magnitude of what we saw on Reed Creek Highway,” Caime said. “This one is a real concern of mine for sometime because Kelly Road is a feeder road to North Hart Elementary School for motorists.  The fact there is a sinkhole of some kind under there has made me extra alarmed, so I’m shutting the road down.”

According to Caime, there are three large culvert pipes under that section of Kelly Road, one of which he believes has been knocked loose by the heavy rainfall.

“They’re six feet in diameter with the creek coming through all three. I watch the pipes every year and the condition of them because the water will cause the bottom of the metal pipes to deteriorate over time. With the heavy rains, it knocked one of the pipes loose and when it knocked it loose the creek flows under the pipe. When it knocked the pipe loose it started to take dirt with it and that is what caused the sinkhole.”

Caime said he’s not sure when the three culvert pipes were first installed but he said they are not as long as the new pipes will be.

“The new pipes will be 60-ft,” he said. “In the old days they would buy pipe just long enough to put the road over it,” he said. “So there wasn’t much shoulder. Nowadays with traffic going faster and as roads get wider, you end up with almost no shoulder. Kelly Rd had almost no shoulder to begin with. The old pipes were about 30-ft long.”

Caime said the new culvert pipes have been ordered but he is not sure how long repairs on the road will take. In the meantime, Caime said motorists should use Beacon Light Road as the detour.