Ellijay-Gilmer County Water and Sewerage Authority (EGCWSA) board members awarded a construction contract for an upcoming water line replacement project that will stretch from South Main Street to River Street.
The system improvement project will replace the last length of Transite (asbestos cement) pipe in the water distribution system, said Gary McVey, water authority director, at the EGCWSA board’s Feb. 27 meeting.
Other sections of the old Transite water pipe have previously been removed from other parts of downtown Ellijay including Corbin Hill and River Street.
McVey said the work will start on South Main Street near the Hitching Post, head north near the roundabout and end on River Street. The new water line will connect to an existing line on River Street.
The construction contract was awarded to UWS, of Trion, for $1.35 million.
“They’re very well spoken of. They did the Coosawattee Campground, and they had some trouble in there, but it was trouble anybody was going to have,” said McVey.
Per the bid, the water authority will supply pipe for the project, which will be installed by the contractor.
McVey said this was a more cost-effective approach than the contractor supplying the 4,700 linear feet of pipe and will result in a savings of around $93,000. A separate contract was awarded to Electrosteel USA for the pipe purchase. “The pipe is about 120 days out, but we have pipe that they can start with. Everybody else is well over $50 a foot, and we can’t get it that quick,” McVey said.
A Georgia Power underground power line project has been ongoing for some time in the South Main Street area and that work will have to be finished before the water line installation can begin.
“We still have to execute contracts and get all of the paperwork in order, so it will likely be a month or so before a preconstruction meeting is scheduled,” he added.
McVey said he expects traffic control for the water main project to be very similar to that of the Georgia Power project. “It’s our goal to minimize traffic delays as best we can, realizing that this is a main corridor for the city,” he added.
The project will replace almost 5,200 feet of Transite, cast iron, galvanized and PVC pipe, all of which will be taken out of use, but will remain in place. The contractor has indicated they could start work sometime in late April, but it will likely be sometime in May before a notice to proceed is given, McVey noted.
In other news ...
﹣ Board members Mike Gibbs, Tony Whitaker, Hubert Parker, Don Callihan and Billy Rowe approved a $23,750 engineering expense for re-permitting a water system project in which new line will be installed from Howard Simmons Road to Sunlight Road.
The project, which had been engineered and permitted prior to installation of a traffic roundabout at Old Highway 5 and Highway 382, now has to be adjusted to account for the roundabout, McVey noted.
“We got word this month that the contractor, CW Matthews, has finally turned the roundabout back over to the DOT so we can proceed with that project. There will need to be some new permitting the engineers will have to do,” he added.
﹣ Callihan said he would be stepping off the EGCWSA board immediately after the Feb. 27 meeting.
Formerly an East Ellijay City Councilmember and mayor pro tem, Callihan was recently sworn in as East Ellijay’s mayor following the death of the city’s longtime mayor, Mack West, in February.