EPD will inspect roadwork for violations

Steep dirt banks flanking the entrance ramp from Houston Road to Ga. 247 in south Bibb County will be grassed early next week - too late to stem further potential erosion from this weekend's predicted rain.

Already the silt has backed up at one of the newly built drains at the construction site and the dirt banks show the crevasses and valleys typical of heavy erosion.

Responding to questions from The Telegraph, Georgia Environmental Protection Division official Johnny Henson said he plans to visit the site today to look for potential violations, since the law generally prohibits soil running off a construction site and into area streams.

The actual construction - the rebuilding of the interchange and a new curb and gutter system - was finished in mid-June, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation's Macon office. But the contractor hasn't finished the tail end of an almost $10 million project.
" It is a problem," said Kevin Ellis, assistant area engineer for construction in the DOT's Macon office. "I'll agree with you on that."

Area residents have eyed the project area for months, wondering when construction would be complete and considering the work behind schedule. But, because the decision was made to rework the interchange after work was almost complete on the main body of the project, no formal deadline for that aspect of construction was ever set, Ellis said.

Also, this portion of the project has changed hands at least once, as APAC-Southeast closed its Macon office and handed the interchange work off to Waters & Sons Construction, APAC spokeswoman Deborah Galloway said.

Officials with Waters & Sons did not return several Telegraph calls this week.

The project is part of the widening of Houston Road, which was begun in 1999, Ellis said. As that work was under way, DOT officials decided that the pavement on the Houston Road entrance ramp to Ga. 247 North needed to be lowered, Ellis said. A truck struck the Ga. 247 bridge during construction work and the decision was made to grade the entrance ramp down by about 18 inches, Ellis said.

Ellis said the work to lower the ramp represented about $230,000 in cost out of the road-widening's $9.7 million budget.

A telephone line had to be moved to lower the road and, by the time that was done, Waters & Sons had other commitments, delaying the work, Ellis said. The paving and striping were completed about the third week of June, Ellis said. The grassing is scheduled for Tuesday, he said, weather permitting.

" A lot of times, it's just trying to get a grassing contractor in there," Ellis said. "This is the prime time of the year for all that."