RINGGOLD, Ga. — More work is planned, but residents whose children attend Woodstation Elementary School are cheering the long-awaited opening of the Colbert Hollow Road bridge.
“About 400 residents have had to detour about eight miles for too long,” said Randall Dyer, whose child attends the school.
Mr. Dyer said that during a recent event at the school, “Everyone was complaining about the road and bridge being completed, but not opened.”
The bridge over Little Chickamauga Creek was passable more than six weeks ago, but the road remained closed because railings were not in place.
The bridge had to be replaced to meet state requirements for school buses to cross, and the road level was raised so it would be above water level during heavy rainfall.
School buses and motorists delivering pupils to Woodstation Elementary have had to use Catlett Road since the school opened in 2004.
$796,000 project
The work to elevate about 1,000 feet of the road and install a 10-ton capacity bridge carried a price tag of $796,000. The contract was awarded to Talley Construction in August 2006.
The project was nearly completed when it was discovered the channel of the Little Chickamauga Creek under the bridge had not been widened as specified in the contract.
Project Engineer Mike Price said he found in December 2007 the channel excavation had not been done, and he was informed at the time that a county employee had instructed Talley crews not to do the work.
He said the channel work must be done so debris does not clog at the bridge during high water, which could result in extensive flooding and damage upstream.
Officials filed a request with the state Environmental Protection Division for a permit to excavate the channel in the area of the bridge.
Despite the bridge construction being finished, county officials have delayed putting up guardrails along the approach to the span for several weeks while awaiting approval of the channel work permit.
Mr. Helton said there was concern the heavy excavation equipment needed to expand the channel might damage the railing. And without the permanent safety railing, the bridge remained closed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Dyer said, “It’s been a terrible inconvenience.”
The county decided to go ahead and open the bridge to traffic, with caution markers and barrels to alert motorists to the potential hazards.
Delay questioned
Though the opened road relieves some of the local concern, County Commissioner Bobby Winters said last week he does not understand why there is such delay by the state in granting the channel excavation permit.
“They were able to go 200 yards below the bridge and clear out beaver dams with a backhoe every six to eight weeks,” Mr. Winters said. “Now it seems we can’t gain approval to work under the bridge.”
Funding for the work required construction of acceleration and deceleration lanes where Colbert Hollow Road intersects with Georgia Highway 151, and that delayed the project for a while.
Catoosa County officials eventually were given permission to use some of the $2 million they received from the federal government for the lanes on Highway 151, along with about $300,000 the Georgia Department of Transportation originally had earmarked for the lanes, to complete the bridge replacement.
The balance of the project cost was paid from the county’s roads and bridges capital fund built with special purpose local option sales tax revenue.
