SR51 Sinkhole Project Garners Award for Georgia DOT

A culvert pipe collapse caused the sinkhole on SR51 last year

A culvert pipe collapse caused the sinkhole on SR51 last year

Last summer’s Lake Hartwell sinkhole repair project by the Georgia Department of Transportation is being honored by the American Public Works Association.

Recently, the national group’s Georgia chapter presented the Georgia DOT with four awards honoring the best achievements in the public works profession last year – one of those projects was for their work repairing a massive sinkhole on SR51 in Hartwell.

Georgia DOT spokesperson Teri Pope said the award fell under the Association’s Emergency Response category.

“If you remember, the pipe that collapsed was about 40 ft under the roadway,” Pope said. “We ended up excavating about a half-mile long section of SR51, removing well over 10,000 tons of dirt, and installed a new drainage pipe to run under SR51.”

On May 6th, 2014 a motorist discovered the massive sinkhole after almost driving into it.Sinkhole pipe laying1

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 earth supporting the roadway was undermined when a huge 50-year old culvert pipe under the road had deteriorated over the years and collapsed.

It took a month of rerouting utility lines and cables before work on the sinkhole itself could even begin.

After that, a new culvert pipe 150 ft long and 13 ft wide had to be manufactured and brought to the site.

Sinkhole repairBut despite rain delays, the work was finished on schedule by the end of October, which Pope said was fast work for a project of that magnitude.

“That is an amazingly quick turnaround considering all of the utilities that had to be relocated and the coordination that had to be done with the Corps of Engineers as well as the actual work that needed to be done,” Pope said.

Tony Voyles, Area Engineer serving Hart County served as Designer and Project Manager of the repair and accepted the award for the Georgia DOT.