Part of a street in Buckhead that’s been closed for four months due to a massive sinkhole has been reopened now that it has been fixed.
Feb. 20, the Atlanta Department of Public Works was notified by the Department of Watershed Management about a roadway collapsing at 3080 Dale Drive in Buckhead’s Peachtree Park neighborhood, said Michael Frierson, a public works spokesman.
“It appears an underground water leak created a void, which led to the roadway collapse,” he said of the sinkhole, which closed both lanes on the street.
While the project is nearly complete, with its anticipated end date June 30, weather permitting, Frierson said enough was done to reopen the street June 25.
“The project is approximately 95% complete, with only property restorations and punch list items remaining,” he said.
The Neighbor had requested information from the city about the sinkhole multiple times since early April, when a local media outlet reported on it.
Peachtree Park Civic Association board member David Stoddard, who kept up with the sinkhole issue from start to finish, said the city immediately responded to the problem once it was discovered.
“They got a pipeline company to come out and check (the) serious aspects (of it) because there’s sewer and gas and water (lines) going through here, in addition to the culvert from an intermittent stream,” he said. “They took care of the immediacy of the problem.
“It was just a day or two after it happened that they had all the trucks and excavators out there so there was no further collapse. Then the timeframe kind of expanded. (At that time) the city maybe (could) have done a little bit better as far as communicating with the people on Dale Drive.”
Stoddard said the repairs took four months because of the complicated nature of the site.
“They had to redesign the (underground) system and that took some time,” he said. “They had to get bids on it (and) make sure everything was well taken care of with the design being appropriate. This intermittent stream goes into a wetlands near Georgia 400, so the Georgia Department of Transportation looked at it very closely since any contamination into the wetlands would be a problem. …
“I have some experience with building roads and bridges from being in the Army (during the Vietnam War), and I think they did a nice job. The folks that live on either side of that intermittent stream had to put up with a lot of inconvenience and some frustration along those lines. The city said they would replant the plants and yards. Once they get all of that done, I think the property owners will be pleased.”
Overall, Stoddard said he’s pleased the road has reopened.
“I think everybody is very, very happy it’s done,” he said. “Dale Drive has a lot of traffic. (For) people who might be walking to the Lenox MARTA station (via the pedestrian bridge over Georgia 400), there’s that factor. (For) the folks that live there, of course, their regular path to get anywhere was interrupted. It was a difficult situation for them. If there had been 250,000 people going through there (daily) like the (2017) I-85 bridge collapse, it may have taken much less time.”
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