Sinkhole Repair Work Nearing Completion

Crews this week are building back the section of SR51 where the sinkhole occurred.

Crews this week are building back the section of SR51 where the sinkhole occurred.

In Hart County, there may be light at the end of the culvert tunnel.

The new giant steel pipe has now been laid in the area where a massive sinkhole developed last Spring.

Georgia Department of Transportation spokesperson Teri Pope said Tuesday crews are now building back the road.  Pope said they are hopeful work will be completed by mid-October as planned.

“The work is going well. The pipe is in position and the lake waters are flowing through it,” Pope said. “Now we are building back the roadway  so that we can repave the road.  We’re hoping to meet our October completion date.”

The sinkhole opened up in early May when the old culvert pipe that funneled lake water under SR51/Reed Creek Highway collapsed.

Crews laid the new culvert pipe last month

Crews laid the new culvert pipe last month

It took weeks of preconstruction work over the summer, which included installing a temporary dam area to give crews a dry place to work and rerouting utilities, before work could even begin to remove the old pipe.

Once workers reached the old pipe, they found little of it left.

The original culvert pipe, which was installed over 50 years ago, had completely deteriorated and it took another week to remove all of the pieces.

Then in late August, the new culvert pipe arrived in sections and workers began assembling it.

In September, crews laid the pipe in the ground.

“The new pipe was just massive, 13 ft wide and 180 ft long,” she said. “So they ended up putting it together like a 3-d puzzle. The process did go smoothly, but it was very labor intensive with some very big materials.”

The new pipe is made of stronger steel and should last much longer than the original.

Work is expected to be completed and the SR51/Reed Creek Highway re-opened by October 13th.