The Ellijay-Gilmer County Water and Sewerage Authority will use a half-million dollar state grant to remove the last section of aged asbestos cement water line from its infrastructure.
The Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA announced in September that the water authority received the $500,000 OneGeorgia Equity Grant.
Gary McVey, water authority director, estimated that the Transite piping made with asbestos cement, which was once standard for municipal water systems, is 70 or more years old.
The water line that will be replaced runs from South Main Street, near the Hitching Post, to Spring and Church Street, connecting to newer water line on River Street.
The water authority previously removed and replaced other sections of Transite pipe in the downtown Ellijay area, McVey noted.
“In one CDBG (grant) project, we removed all the Transite line on Corbin Hill. The last one we did was on River Street, and we removed all the Transite (there),” he added.
The water line replacement project, which is still in engineering, has been delayed by the ongoing Georgia Power Grid Investment Project, in which power lines are being buried across Ellijay, McVey noted.
The power line project is expected to wrap by mid-December. McVey said the water authority hopes to start physical work on the water line replacement by this winter.
“We went back to the engineer to say there’s all these electric lines going here now, so we’ll have to work around that,” he added. “There’s still things we’re working on with the award of the grant and the engineering. When the engineering has been completed, then it will have to be advertised for bid.”
Due to the location of the existing water line, the project will cause some traffic delays, particularly along South Main Street, McVey noted.
“There’s going to be some challenges because that’s a main thoroughfare through there. It’s going to be an inconvenience to some folks,” he said. “We’re going to do our best to keep the traffic flowing, but, at the same time, do the work.”
The Transite line will be replaced with ductile iron pipe, which has a longer expected lifespan, noted McVey. The line serves several downtown restaurants and small businesses, as well as the Pilgrim’s poultry processing plant. McVey said he doesn’t foresee any water service outages resulting from the work.
“We’re going to try to keep everybody in service till we swap everything over. We’ll keep the (old) line in place till the new one is activated,” he said.
The current cost estimate for the entire line replacement is $2 million. The water authority will fund the remaining $1.5 million portion not covered by the DCA grant.
The purpose of the OneGeorgia Equity Grants is to provide financial assistance for infrastructure improvements to rural communities. This is the first time the local water authority has received this particular type of grant for a project, McVey noted.
“We really appreciate those who went to bat on our behalf to help us get it. We’re going to do our best to put a good project together,” he added.