By Michael Andrews
Mountain Life Editor
Ellijay Gilmer County Water and Sewerage Authority (EGCWSA) board members heard updates on three ongoing water line projects when meeting last Monday.
Two of those projects — one on South Main Street and one on Old Highway 5 — are being done within about four miles of each other.
On South Main Street, where aging Transite (asbestos cement) water lines are being replaced with new ductile iron pipe, the contractor, UWS of Acworth, has installed 1,440 linear feet of pipe since last month, noted Gary McVey, water authority director.
“It’s a slow job, and we knew it was going to be a slow job from the get-go,” McVey told board members Billy Rowe, Tony Whitaker, Hubert Parker and Ricky Wimpey about putting new water line underneath the asphalt on South Main. “There were a couple of days they did pretty good and cleared the 100 feet a day mark, but most days they don’t.”
McVey said he’s a little concerned about the speed of the progress on the South Main water line. The contractor has 150 days for “substantial completion” of the project, and 180 for “final completion,” which will be up the first week of January, he added. If it takes longer than that for everything to wrap up, an extension may have to be filed with the state since the project is being funded by a state grant.
“I’d rather not file an extension if we can get out of it, but there’s still a lot of the project left to go,” said McVey. “It (will go) all the way up to Spring Street, go down Church Street, then to River Street almost all the way down to Brett Jones’ (law) office.”
On Old Highway 5, where new water line is being put in from Howard Simmons Road to Sunlight Road off Highway 382, 1,898 linear feet of 12-inch pipe has been installed on Old Highway 5 since last month, McVey noted. That work is being done by Smith Pipeline of Atlanta.
“They are well over 50 percent complete and on track to finish by (the end of year),” McVey said.
Another water line installation, this one on Roundtop Road, is being done by an in-house EGCWSA crew. McVey said that project has seen 1,591 linear feet of pipe go in on Mt. Pisgah Road and crews were nearing the county line as of Monday.
“I do expect them to get that in before our next meeting,” he said. “There are 83 taps that have (also) been applied for along that line, and we’ll try to get those done as quickly as possible.”
Another phase of the Roundtop Road project, which awaits EPD approval, will include putting in new pipe from Knight Road to Highway 382, McVey noted.
In other news ...
Board members approved purchases for hiring a company, White Electric of Atlanta, to install four new VFD drives (used for adjusting water flow or pressure) at the Coosawattee system pumping station, which pumps water to a Highway 515 storage tank, for an amount not to exceed $60,000.
McVey said three of the four drives have failed and are beyond repair.