Cornelia city leaders and staff met with business owners along Main Street this week to answer concerns about an upcoming sewer project that will close the street periodically throughout the summer months.
Most folks at the meeting were relieved to hear the project won’t cause much in the way of disruption to their businesses.
City Leaders voted in April to move forward with a plan to replace the aging infrastructure along Main Street. “Parts of it are almost 100 years old,” explains Public Works Director Keith Ethridge.
Many of the pipes are made of clay and that means, over time, cracks can form. That’s exactly what happened last summer. Cornelia suffered a series of sewer leaks from old pipes that brought down the ire of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division with a $3000 fine and orders to get to work replacing the problem lines.
The next phase of that replacement project will include sections of Main Street from Chattahoocee Street to Wayside Street. Higgins Construction is doing the work at a cost of $356,078. They expect to start work within the next few weeks beginning with the longest stretch from Pine Street north.
Construction initially will block the street in front of the Town Centre shopping strip. That was a concern for Budget Time owner Samantha Crawford but after hearing the plans she is relieved, “They (customers) will have access, in and out, the whole entire time.” That part of the project will take about 3 weeks to complete.
Once that first stretch is done, the rest of the traffic disruptions along Main Street should be minimal and short-lived. Most of the detours will send traffic down the recently repaved stretch of Clarkesville Street providing unfettered access to all the businesses on that side during the project.
The other major worry for business owners was that they might lose sewer service during the construction. Ethridge says that won’t happen, “They’ll do bypass pumping so you’ll never know.”
While business owners are relieved that the sewer replacement will create only minor headaches for their customers, a much more painful project will follow not too long after. The Georgia Department of Transportation has plans to repave Main Street after the infrastructure work is done. Details on when that project will start, how long it will take and what impact it will have on business aren’t yet known.
